Longford, IE · spoken word · poetry

Felispeaks

1 festival played

Nigerian-Irish poet and performer from Longford — writing about race, body and belonging in Ireland with no soft edges.

FeliSpeaks is the performing name of Felicia Olusanya, born in Nigeria and raised in the Irish midlands. Her work is built for the voice rather than the page: long breath lines, repetition, direct address to the audience, delivered from memory. She has worked alongside musicians as well as reading solo, and her poems have been staged for theatre and broadcast as often as they have appeared in print.

Much of the writing turns on being Black and Irish at once, on family, and on what the body is expected to carry. She tends to name things plainly and hold the uncomfortable line rather than resolve it.

spoken wordpoetry