On this episode we feature VILLAGER, a Nigerian-born artist living in Baltimore. VILLAGER's work spans across various media in an interconnected ritual of honoring and remembering Indigenous Yorùbá knowledge systems, visual & material culture, and African spiritual technologies and philosophies.

After immigrating to the United States, VILLAGER was left to process the trauma and grief of abruptly moving to a new home. This struggle ultimately lead them to several difficult decisions, including curtailing their formal education in Earth science and adopting a new name that more closely aligned with their choice to practice art in Baltimore.

We’ll also discuss VILLAGER’s recent solo exhibitions including ÀṢẸ: Embodying the Divine, which was part of BOPA’s Emerge series, as well as Devotion, Dreams, and Destiny at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center - a collection partially inspired by the novel The Famished Road by Nigerian author Ben Okri. And on top of that, this year VILLAGER was a recipient of the Mayor's Office Individual Artist Award through the Creative Baltimore Fund.