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Damilola Oyedeji (Ariella)

@_dami_ariella

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🔥 in His 👁️👁️
Be'you'tiful with Dami
Committed to refuting stereotypes
PhD-ing @texastech
CNF Mentor @sprinnglm
Asst. Poetry editor @ironhorselitrev

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A start..,
The beginning of a lifelong dream.
Making women Be'you'tiful all the time. Let's go on this journey together.
#fashion #fashionstyle #fashiondesigner #fashionblogger #fashionista #clothes #clothingbrand #style #beauty #elegance taken in Minna by @_dami_ariella

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5 years ago

Proof of Life.

Standard editions are binding & mailing. Check your inbox for alerts. Check your mailbox in the next few days.

Fall Chapbook Cohort is coming soon on 10/23. by @_dami_ariella

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2 days ago

"won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed."

~~ Lucille Clifton

Happy birthday, Oluwadamilola! You smell like a field that the Lord has blessed.

📸: @gigifloresphoto
🫦: @_mhandie_
💅: @rcdgeorge by @_dami_ariella

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a month ago

Today’s the day, Fall Cohort!

Thirty West is thrilled to publish this 4-person chapbook project, filled with so much poetry and fiction that you will be thankful for their writing.

Preorders are open now. Limited-edition saddle-stitched or classic staples. Read more in our Thirty West shop page. by @_dami_ariella

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a month ago

What place has had the most impact on you?

What city, what town, has your body moved through, or has moved through your body and stayed?

In the poem "O Cidade," poet Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe @somacci returns to Pitakwa, his waking city, his one triggering town. He traces the city's history of violence through his memory, through the bodies that have had to make a life within it.

“All the ways we've been reduced
all the ways we've lain ourselves on the table…”

Here, the poet witnesses the city, or is it the city that witnesses the poet?

Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, Swan X, is a poet from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He has been published in The Cloudscent Journal, Serotonin, Isele, The Dawn Review, Poetry Sango-Ota, Poetry ColumnNND amongst others. He is the winner of the 2024 Kukogho Iruesiri Samson Poetry Prize, co-winner of the 2024 Poetry ColumnNND Chapbook Award, the 2024 Folorunsho Editor's Prize for Poetry and a finalist for both the 2024 Kofi Awoonor Poetry Prize and the 2024 Dawn (Review) Prize for Poetry. You can find him listening to his favorite singer Lana del Rey, or writing a poem. He tweets @mesomaccius. by @_dami_ariella

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2 months ago

I found her sitting by the lake, Summer.
Found her on dining mats, in flower
beds, in the thundering motion
of my beloveds heart. She, Summer,
said to me: "Whisper my name
into your world's ear canals, and I will come
to your very doorstep. You, beautiful, beautiful thing!" taken in The World by @_dami_ariella

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2 months ago

What is place outside the imagination of language? Published in Poetry Sango-ota, this poem Magiro Street, Kaiama by Nigerian poet Ridwan Fasasi @ibnyushau44 answers the question.

Fasasi Ridwan, Swan I, is a Nigerian poet of Yoruba descent. He is the author of The Psalmic Field chapbook and the winner of the 2024 Labari Prize for Poetry. A Pushcart Prize Nominee whose works have appeared/ are forthcoming on ANMLY Lit, Chestnut Review, Euonia Review, Akpata, Lucent Dreaming, Strange Horizon, Hindsight creative and elsewhere. by @_dami_ariella

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3 months ago

✨ FEATURED SPOKEN WORD ARTIST | Damilola Oyedeji (Ariella) ✨

Nigerians in West Texas (NIWT) is proud to present Damilola Oyedeji (Ariella), an internationally published Nigerian poet, essayist, literary critic, and Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University, Lubbock.

Her work has appeared in acclaimed literary journals and award-winning anthologies across the world, where she explores themes of identity, culture, resilience, migration, and the human experience through the power of words.

Join us as Damilola takes the stage with a captivating poetry recital celebrating the beauty, strength, and richness of Nigerian heritage.

🇳🇬 NIWT Annual Nigerian Cultural Day 2026

📅 Saturday, July 18, 2026
📍 Bush Convention Center
105 N. Main Street
Midland, TX
🕒 Red Carpet: 3:00 PM
🎉 Program Begins Promptly: 4:00 PM

🎟️ Admission is FREE!

Register today:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/annual-nigeria-cultural-day-2026-the-nigerian-cultural-experience-tickets-1986318246345

Come celebrate Nigerian culture, excellence, and creativity with us!

#NIWTCulturalDay2026 #NigeriansInWestTexas #SpokenWord #Poetry #TexasTech NigerianExcellence MidlandTX CelebrateCulture by @_dami_ariella

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3 months ago

June is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month. So I leave you, friends, with a poem by @joemario_umana and its final line: "let no one call this anything less than survival."

Published in @strangehorizonsmag, "Oh Ashy Wings Still Fluttering" reminds us that even the faintest spark bears witness to a soul still choosing life. We hold fast to such messages of hope, especially in a time like this, when the world seems to be crumbling around us and we find ourselves caught within it, unprotected, untethered, yet somehow still here, still fluttering.

@joemario_umana , Swan XVII, is a Nigerian creative writer and a performance poet who considers himself a wildflower. His works have appeared in and are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Chestnut Review, Strange Horizons, Orange Blossom Review, Frontier Poetry, Uncanny Magazine, LOLWE, Ubwali Lit, and elsewhere. by @_dami_ariella

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4 months ago

As May draws to a close, I am choosing not to post an NPIA video. A nation that cannot protect its children cannot sustain its artistic and creative legacies. My thoughts are with the kidnapped students and teachers in Oyo, Borno, and other parts of Nigeria, as well as the family and loved ones of Mr. Michael Oyedokun. I join countless others in calling on the government to ensure the safe return of those who have been taken. We will continue to demand action, hold on to hope, and pray for their safe return.

#NigerianPoetryCannotSurviveWithoutNigerianChildren the photo is made up of text that's the same as the caption. by @_dami_ariella

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5 months ago

We wrap up 2026 creative masterclasses with an essay writing session by the brilliant and gifted Damilola Oyedeji.

Damilola Oyedeji is a Nigerian poet, essayist, and literary critic. Her work explores intersectional discourses of Black bodies experiences. Damilola is the author of the forthcoming chapbook Blue Scapes, with Thirty West Publishing House, PA.

A Best of the Net nominee, as well as recipient of the 2026 William Walker Excellence in Critical Writing Award, the 2025 Robert Henigan Critical Essay Award, and the C.H. Gelin Graduate Fellowship Award, her works have appeared in LLIDS Journal, Lolwe, Orange Blossom Review, The Shallow Tales Review, Brittle Paper, The Nigeria Review, Talon Review, Belfast Review, Poetry Journal, the Sprinng Writing Fellowship 2023 Anthology, and elsewhere.

A past fellow of the Sprinng Writing Fellowship herself, Damilola mentors emerging writers in creative nonfiction through the Sprinng Writing Fellowship. She is a PhD student in Creative Writing at Texas Tech University and holds a master’s degree in English from Missouri State University. by @_dami_ariella

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5 months ago

Turned in the last final for my first year of doctoral studies! How time flies!

Grateful for the friends, flowers, and breathtaking sunsets that kept me sane.

Last slide is my mood for the summer. taken in Texas Tech University by @_dami_ariella

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5 months ago