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About

Born in 1968; son of an African American home child care provider mother and an Nigerian businessman father; raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Education: Temple University, BA in Communications; Acworth University, BS in Business Management.

In an oft-quoted remark, Olutunde Olufemi aka Soul recounted his birth: "I was born like most black children with a daul identity living in America surrounded by ghetto poverty, love and soul music." It was 1968 and Aretha Franklin song "Chain of Fools” was becoming an anthem for a new generation of soul music lovers. As Soul once said in a live PBS interview, "I didn't have to pretend that I had soul because my mother's love for music and life implicited it in my nature." Indeed, as a poet, composer, artist, and musician, Soul has made a career of redefining his roots "That's the most invigorating feeling," he repeatedly ended his spoken word radio show "Reflections" telling his audience, "expressing who and what you are into a microphone for the world to hear"

 

Soul first made a name for himself on Atlanta's poetry scene at the infamous Patti Hut Café. As a breeding ground for up-and-coming word artists, Patti Hut had developed a reputation for being a spot for new voices and conscious poets. This is where he fine tuned his craft and skills in front of an audience of 100 plus. After joining a poetry troupe called Klub Kummba and then appearing several times on PBS's  television spoken word show called Word Essence. Soul's career as a writer gained momentum, so did his work as a playwriter.  "[My writings] are about making things matter.  Making those invisible, intangible ideas and dreams materialize, things that you can touch, things that you can feel and become apart of" he said.

 

So far he has done that in five Books. Soul acknowledged the privilege he felt at being able to share his poetry on stage and in literary form. "To be a young poet and publish books is quite a blessing, because publishers print poetry like churches sing hymns--to maintain some sort of traditional stance," he said. In the spring of 1995 his first self published book of poetry hit the streets. Called  Poems. Bullets & Blood, it is distilled from seven years of journal writing. He went on to produce four more books of poetry (1997) The River Is Overflowing With Words, (2008) Son Of A Warrior Griot, (2012) Love Psalms, and (2016) Ofo Ase ( the power of the word). His current publication reinforces the power of enlightenment, passion and truths he gave to aspiring poets in African Writer Magazine.

 

"Experience things and write it down." He also advised the use of poetry as therapy, saying, "If you can channel [pain] into something positive,  that's the power of self healing"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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