Biography
Bimpé Fageyinbo is a Nigerian artist — a poet, filmmaker, and photographer. Her work uses poetry, film, prose, and documentary photography to answer our most profound inner questions, exploring issues related to race, culture, faith, introspection, and identity. Fageyinbo’s literary and visual storytelling is notably poetic, experimental, and conceptual—organically weaving the human experience with social anthropological perspectives.
Fageyinbo is the author of so maybe that’s the bee’s weakness (2010) and what was me (2017), the first two books of poetry in a continuing memoir series. Her collaborative work includes the A Womb of Violet Anthologies, archived in collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Library of Congress. Her narrative-short film, boju weyín received multiple film festival Official Selections and was awarded Honorable Mention for Best Narrative Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards (March 2022).
In 2023, She was commissioned to write and perform her poem “freedom for freedom” at the historic Harriet Tubman Monument Unveiling ceremony, hosted by Audible and the City of Newark, NJ. Adapted into a poetry film, “freedom for freedom,” directed by Yuri Alves and produced by DreamPlay Media, it was awarded the 2024 Jury’s Stellar Award at the 43rd Thomas Edison Film Festival.
Fageyinbo is a 2024 NJ State Council on the Arts Fellow, and is currently working on a third book of poetry, a photo documentary about mobility in Nigeria, and continues to teach at the university level, teaching courses in Journalism and Media, Creative Writing, African Diasporic Literature, and Film.
The Art of Poetic Conversation
The Art of Poetic Conversation is a workshop that explores the importance of conversation and the internal monologue in crafting poetics. Conversation is an essential part of writing, shaping the rhythms, textures, and emotional undercurrents of poetry. Fageyinbo walks participants through the process of finding the unique qualities of everyday discourse and the poetic nature of our inner musings. Through guided exercises, participants will engage in generative writing practices that transform spoken and internal language into poetic forms, refining their voice and deepening their approach to storytelling.