Introducing Creative Calabash

New forms of writing and being

Alaafia! Peace! What up doe!

I am Owolabi Aboyade a Detroit-based writer, cultural organizer, and worshipper in African Traditional Religion.  For years I’ve performed hip hop and poetry as Will See and kept an email list for promotions and announcements.

Some folks here may have met me locally in Detroit, on tour by myself or with the Long Hairz Collective, or via organizing and liberatory collaboration. Others may be new to me and my work. I intend that you find your heart, mind and spirit inspired by what you find within.  

In 2022 my creative practice transformed to focus more on non-fiction and essay writing. Friends, comrades, and community folks have been very encouraging and supportive. Collaborator Bridget Quinn (Awe Society) encouraged me to check out Substack. I’m moving my email updates to this platform.

Substack also will have options for you to subscribe to this growing community and financially support my writing.

Here you will find essays and writings on:

• Disability justice and my journey with chronic illness

• New Afrikan Spirituality and 

• Political writings on liberation

• Cultural Poetic and Artistic reflections

From time to time I’ll also share links to some amazing creative people from Detroit and around the world

Once in a while I’ll dive into the archives and share older works that you may not yet be familiar with.

At times you may find a healing balm, a call to connection, a moment of reflection, ancestral thunder, a poetic interlude, the bitter mushy decay of dead and dying leaves. At times you may find yourself I hope in these works.

Owólabi Aboyade 

aka

Will See

(big props to Transforming Power Fund for naming me a Radical Imagination Fellow and supporting my creative work)

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