Hi, I’m Dupe.

I’m a creative professional, committed to cultivating reflective spaces that help us make sense of our lives and find greater meaning in our experiences.

My work spans photography, writing and community engagement.

Photography

Photography was my first creative love. Little else inspires the slowing of my heart, and the ability to pay close attention, to witness the world mindfully.

Family and friends are amongst my favorite subjects. I also shoot portraits and events for clients.

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Writing

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.

—Joan Didion

I want it to be true that, the first time I read this Joan Didion quote, I wondered if she had crawled into my mind, gathered the scattered mess of my writing impulses, and found just the right words to summarize them. But the thoughts I recall from that day are less momentous; something to the effect of, “oh, that sounds like me.”

Over the years , Ms. Didion’s words have become the truest, indeed just the right words, to express my motivations as a writer. Writing and reading are my guiding lights. They help me make sense of the world that I move through, and of myself in it. Themes I’ve been working through in the last few years include belonging (how it helps us find ease in the world, how it animates us to seek change), the implications of migration, and the evolution of Nigerian society through the lens of my family’s history.

For fun, and to validate my inner homebody and yours, I’ve recently started a newsletter where I explore art that nods at scenes of home life.

For work, I occasionally take content writing and editing gigs, largely in the Nigerian tech industry, and one time for a natural hair website.

Community Engagement

I’m drawn to work in arts and culture organizations, on teams that create opportunities for individuals and communities to deepen their practices in self expression, or to make sense of their experiences via others’ creative work.

This once meant work at the national oral history nonprofit, StoryCorps, where I supported a broad spectrum of programs that allow people of diverse backgrounds to share their stories, today and with future generations. I also co-created opportunities for communities to engage with creative work there, through community events and an online course.

Currently at Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, I help get the word out about a range of opportunities to build community with racial justice leaders across the globe, via a Fellowship Experience and a number of media projects including a digital magazine, Moya and podcast, Race Beyond Borders.