Discipline: Interdisciplinary Art – performance

Ahamefule J. Oluo

Discipline: Interdisciplinary Art – performance
Region: Seattle, WA
MacDowell Fellowships: 2023

Ahamefule J. Oluo is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, writer, comedian, and creator of live performance and theater.

They have premiered two autobiographical music-based performances at The Public Theater’s prestigious Under the Radar Festival: Now I’m Fine (2016), which New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley described as “a New Orleans funeral march orchestrated by Arnold Schoenberg,” and of which Time Out New York said, "A day later, it's as though I grabbed a live wire; I can still feel the electricity in my skin"; and Susan (2020), which Brantley called “virtuosic” and “crackerjack.” Now I’m Fine was adapted into the film Thin Skin, starring Oluo, who also wrote the script and the score. Thin Skin won Best Director at the Harlem Film Festival.

Oluo has written for television, including the stop-motion animated comedy Santa Inc. on HBO Max, starring Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen. They have also appeared on This American Life. Oluo's work has been commissioned, presented, or invited by On the Boards, PICA, the Meany Center, the Clarice, Seattle Theater Group, and REDCAT.

Studios

Firth

Ahamefule J. Oluo worked in the Firth studio.

Originally a working barn perched atop the namesake hill of Hillcrest Farm, this building was converted to serve the arts in 1956. A grand set of windows was installed to make the large interior suitable for visual artists, bringing in abundant natural light from the north. The addition of a screened porch and accessible entrance ramp…

Learn more