Revolution
Iyeoka · Poetry and music
Watch on YouTube ↗Explore · The life behind the words
WHERE POETRY
FINDS ITS VOICE.
Boston. Nigerian roots.
A life in words and music.
Some artists begin with a melody.
With Iyeoka, the words deserve
your attention too.
01 · Two cultures, one voice
Roots that
travel with her.
Born in Boston to Nigerian parents, Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo grew up with a connection to more than one cultural world.
Her name comes from the Esan language and is commonly translated as “I want to be respected”. Questions of identity, dignity and belonging run through the way she presents herself as a poet, singer and storyteller.
Before making the arts her full-time work, she practised as a pharmacist. Poetry was already an important part of her life; the move towards performance gave that writing a public voice.
02 · The spoken word
A room.
A microphone.
A listening audience.
Iyeoka was one of the original members of Boston’s Lizard Lounge Poetry Slam Team. In that setting, a poem becomes an encounter: timing, rhythm, silence and the response of the room all matter.
She went on to become a TED Global Fellow in 2010. Her work reaches across poetry, performance and education, keeping the spoken word at the heart of an increasingly musical practice.
That background offers a way into her songs. Listen for the shape of a sentence, the placement of a pause and the way a repeated phrase gains weight.
03 · From a poem to a song
Words find
their rhythm.
Iyeoka founded The Rock by Funk Tribe as a place to bring poetry together with jazz, blues, funk and gospel. Early releases such as Black and Blues and Hum the Bass Line explored that meeting.
Her later collaboration with producer David Franz developed a more melodic, song-centred approach. Say Yes opened a new door: “The Yellow Brick Road Song” became the theme for the television series Fairly Legal, while “Simply Falling” found an enormous online audience.
Gold, released in 2016, extended that range through soul, pop and rhythmic experimentation. Across these different settings, the storyteller remains present.
Listen with the poem in mind
Revolution.
Let this be another starting point. Having met the voice through “Simply Falling”, return to the words: their rhythm, their directness and the space they leave for your own response.
It is the connection between poet and singer that makes Iyeoka’s work worth exploring beyond a single song.
04 · A return to the stage
The next words
are still unfolding.
New writing. New arrangements. A renewed wish to perform.
Following a creative pause, Iyeoka has been developing new material and revisiting earlier songs. The next chapter brings both into the same conversation — a continuing body of work, ready to meet an audience again.
Back to Iyeoka · Music & booking ↗European booking
New songs. A return to the stage.
Talk to GRIOT about concert opportunities,
availability and production.