Odejuma

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry speaks with Rian-Louis, host of the RIANOUTLOUD! Podcast. In this conversation, he delves into how he started the podcast in 2020 to spotlight independent Black LGBTQ+ artists and what he has learned over six years and more than a hundred conversations. He talks about the voice note that told him it mattered, the friend who talked him out of quitting, the cost of keeping a creative life running alongside a nine-to-five, and curating a new black space in Pittsburgh called Good Company. It is a conversation about how much it takes to keep showing up and the importance of archiving and documenting black queer art.

Connect with Rian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ratedrian/

Follow the RIANOUTLOUD! Podcast : https://www.instagram.com/rianoutloudpodcast/

Listen to the RIANOUTLOUD! Podcast: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/rianoutloud/

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode, by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry chats with Will Rhem Jr., a dancer, choreographer, poet, and teacher raised in the Gullah Geechee culture of South Carolina. Will has danced on Broadway and taught at Columbia, but this conversation lives somewhere quieter. He talks about tending the self like a garden, the parts of him left untended that kept growing anyway, and the childhood he had to walk back through to write his poetry collection, ‘Abandoned Gardens Still Grow.’ He reflects on Gullah Geechee identity, truth-telling as his first calling, and turning healing into a short film called ‘Bloom.’ It is an unhurried conversation about resilience, self-love, and what it means to grow in the dark. He closes the episode with a reading of one of his poems, and it is worth hearing in his own voice and will definitely leave you with something to sit with.

Connect with Will on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willrhemjr/

Buy his book here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abandoned-gardens-still-grow-will-rhem-jr/1147522239

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode, by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry sits down with Ozoz Sokoh, the culinary anthropologist and food explorer known to many as Kitchen Butterfly. Her debut cookbook, Chop Chop: Cooking the Food of Nigeria, is the first Nigerian cookbook to win a James Beard Award. Ozoz talks about being a geologist in the Netherlands and how food not only became the thing that held her far from home but also started a decades-long career archiving Nigerian food as a heritage worth keeping. It is a conversation about documenting history in real time and the power of food to bridge cultures.

Connect with Ozoz on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kitchenbutterfly/

Buy Chop Chop here: https://ozozsokoh.com/book

Watch the Zamari interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgr_iA9HAVE

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry speaks with Keith Parris, known online as Icy, the beauty influencer, model, and writer whose book ‘Amputee Story’ went viral overnight when he was still in middle school. Keith traces his path from a Caribbean household where the art he loved was never the plan, to building a career with no manager and no team, to the fierce self-love he protects now. He gets real about relapse, about the night an ex's words landed like the bullies he'd carried since childhood, and about what it actually took to heal his inner child. It's a conversation about being Black, queer, and disabled online, the difference between being seen and being understood, and the tender work of holding little Keith and telling him he made it.

Connect with Keith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/icyparris/

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

Support my work: https://buymeacoffee.com/harryitie

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry is in conversation with Zola Dee, a playwright, screenwriter, and performer whose work [Home] going is the recipient of this year's Kesselring Prize for Playwriting. Zola grew up in Winston-Salem, moved through Los Angeles and Berlin, and landed in Minneapolis, and home has never been a fixed place for her so much as a question she keeps writing toward. She talks about what belonging costs, how African diasporic spiritual traditions and Black Americana live inside her plays, and the people who choose to dream a better world into being. This is a conversation about identity, displacement, and the stories we inherit and remake. Sit with it. You may hear your own longing for home somewhere in hers.

Connect with Zola on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamzoladee/

For more information on Zola, visit: https://www.zoladee.com/

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie/

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry speaks with filmmaker Ashton Legadoé, whose path runs from a Cape Verdean family in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to telling some of the most tender Black queer stories on screen. This is a conversation about legacy. What it means to build something that outlasts you, in your work, in your community, and even in the name you carry.

Ashton talks about Nana's Boys, his feature about two Black men whose love is tested when life stops cooperating, and why he stopped waiting for permission to make it. Along the way, he reflects on his immigrant roots, the responsibility of representation, and giving the next generation of storytellers the resources he had to find on his own. It is a conversation about creating without apology, and the quiet conviction that the stories of everyday people are worth keeping.

Connect with Ashton on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashtonsdreams/

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie/

Watch Nana's Boys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-bTK8K10Tg

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Get Odejuma delivered straight to your inbox, alongside personal reflections on the episode by subscribing to the Substack here: https://odejuma.substack.com/

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry is in conversation with TRYFE, the DJ, entertainer, and founder of the Viribus Foundation, about following a calling he never planned for. From Howard University to the White House and a Kamala Harris rally of thirty thousand, TRYFE has built a career out of one gift: walking into a room and giving it the joy it didn't know it needed. This is a conversation about love, loss, grief, mental health in Black, brown, and LGBTQ communities, faith and family, and the power of music to heal and connect us.

Connect with TRYFE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrtryfe/

See TRYFE in Minneapolis: https://app.opendate.io/e/pride-rooted-in-black-queer-joy-indigo-room-june-20-2026-703210

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry speaks with Dr. Brittany Lewis, a scholar, author, and the founder of Research in Action. At its heart, this is a conversation about power: who holds it, who gets studied, and who gets to decide what counts as knowledge. Brittany shares how a queer Black girl from North Minneapolis became a scholar who refuses to write research that only mesmerizes problems. She talks about the Black women who raised her, the choice to leave a tenured path that was never built for her, and the idea at the center of her book, ‘Building a New Table.’ They get into community-centered research, the work behind Minnesota's first Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls, and what it means to build something meant to outlast you. This is an unhurried conversation about resilience, community, and living in your truth.

Connect with Brittany on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brittany.m.lewis/

Learn about the convening here: https://www.researchinaction.com/convening

Learn more about her book here: https://www.drbrittanylewis.com/book

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry chats with Jamal Wade, a dancer, choreographer, and director whose path runs from Baton Rouge to thirteen years in Los Angeles to a brand new chapter in New York. At its heart, this is a conversation about giving yourself permission. Jamal talks about the fear and judgment he is still unlearning, and what it took to trust that the life he imagined as a boy was always possible. He opens up about 'home, Away', his short film about two young Black men navigating masculinity, vulnerability, and the longing to be a safe space for each other. It is a conversation about becoming, about loving deeply and unconditionally, and about the courage it takes to show up as your fullest self.

Connect with Jamal on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamalkwade/

Learn more about "home, Away" and how you can support it: https://www.jamalwade.com/homeaway

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

In this episode of Odejuma, Harry speaks with renowned theater actor Jason Veasey. He reflects on growing up as a military kid who moved across countries and cultures before finding a stage. Jason built his foundation quietly, through regional theater, before Broadway ever called. This conversation traces that arc up to his nearly decade-long run in the critically acclaimed show A Strange Loop, before it became history. He talks about what it means to be a Black queer man in rooms not built for you, the stories he protects, and the ones he refuses to let die. There's humor here, and tenderness, and the particular wisdom of someone who has learned the difference between success and freedom. Jason Veasey is a man becoming, and this is a conversation worth sitting with.

Connect with Jason on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veaseyville

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

Editor's Note: The Lion King out-of-town tryouts were held at the Orpheum Theatre, not the Guthrie. Easy mix-up between two of Minneapolis's most iconic venues.