KETU OLADUWA

A ceremonial practice space where identity is worked, not performed. This woodshed invites participants to move beyond gender as opposition & into harmony as circulation—where the feminine lives as listening, containment, and gestation, & the masculine moves as direction, protection, and restraint. In the moment, thru presence, voice, & embodied reflection, we hold at the edge long enuf for fear to soften, armor to loosen, & ancestral memory to speak thru the body. This is not a place to fix masculinity or defend femininity, but to practice wholeness, release dominance, and let rite & relationship replace conflict—thru the fire, to the limit, to the wall. 

OMOWALE KETU OLADUWA

Son of Carrie Thomas Taylor & John Henry Taylor, Margaret Fisher & Tyrone Foster, & the cultural student of Chief James Hawthorne Béy & Dr. Margaret Burroughs. Born & raised in the tightknit Black commune west of  Main Street in Elmsford, New York, Poetry  discovered Kétu during the 1960s while on Massachusett’s deathrow. He cultivated an Afrikan identity there & wrote himself  anew thru cultural history studies & political protest.  

Oladuwa’s poeting is rooted in identity, resistance, & centering ancestral memory. His poetikz, journalism, Real Talk & jazz gatherings create a communal tapestry of collective renewal. These gatherings are tools for both personal expression & community engagement, revealing a commitment to cultural reclamation, ancestral relationship, & collective development.  

Wrongfully convicted of murder at age 21, he spent five years on deathrow, where Poetry possessed him to write him Self anew. Oladuwa is recognized for his contributions to the cultural arts in Fort Wayne that often center the intersectionality of art, personal experience, & liberation politics. He’s committed to use his platform to open avenues to consciousness, before acting to change life’s material conditions.    

Poetry is more than words on a page; Poetry is sound rhat catalyzes transformation. Poeting is the day-to-day  work to bridge the gap between personal healing & collective liberation. RootFolkz RootWork celebrates Connection & Relationship, employing poeting, story-gathering, & the transmission of communal awareness. 

I emerge from a journey thru survival, resistance, self-discovery, & reclamation. I found liberation poeting in death’s house. My poeting is a testament to the resilience of the hueman spirit, the livingancestral connection, & the power of sound to heal & lift consciousness to rize from colonial mindset, above inhibition, trauma, & self-doubt to re-mmembering.