By oreoluwa akinyode

indigo: in dey go is an experimental choreopoem film gesturing an individual's descent to earth. indigo: in dey go mirrors the way spirit and memory are activated through a reflection of one's story beginning before they were born.

still image from indigo: in dey go (2025), oreoluwa akinyode.

reverence:

I give reverence to Olodumare, the creator, Ifa, the most honest oracle, the one who gave me the name Ifamodupe, Orunmila, the custodian of Ifa, the one who has deepened my gratitude for living this life, to my Ori (my destiny), to Egungun, to Osun Alawoye, to Sango, to Egbe, to my elders, to my mother Grace Akinwande-Akinyode, to my Father Bernard Akinyode, to my spiritual teachers, to Agbongbon Oluwo Ifalowo Adeola, to my Olori Iya Fabunmi Trinice Adeola, to my creative partner Destiny Egbeyemi Hodges, to my Baba Sango Bolanle, to my Iya Osunkemi and to my Iya Ifatoyin Bogunbe, and to all of the priests that initiated me into Ifa, Osun, and Sango. It is through my reconnection to my ancestral spiritual traditions and practices that I am here able to tell stories I do today through the language of poetry, oral storytelling, and visual storytelling. For that, I will forever tell stories drenched in destiny and passion for living a full life. A life led with good character, a life led with honor, a life with others, a life committed to fulfilling my destiny.

An image is a poem, a prayer is an image, a poem is a prayer, and a prayer is a poem! Getting accepted into the 2025 Resisting Narratives of Erasure film cohort was a prayer answered and an experience I will never forget. I recall applying to this fellowship in November of 2024, while on a trip to Nigeria for my Osun initiation in Ogun State. Getting accepted a few weeks after returning back home to Maryland was just a glimpse of what Osun, my great mother, a primordial spirit, has promised to bless me in this life. She shows me everyday what it means to tell my story.

Filmmaking has been an invitation to allow others to witness my call and response to the divinities above and on this earth, as I recall my journey of being sent to earth, a documentation of my unraveling and stories that visit me and flow through me. Osun shows me how to do this with ease and she also shows me how to push against the challenges, to bend and flow above, under, and through obstacles, with precision and strategy. It is no surprise that my film compiled into a series of reflections and conversations through the repetition of gestures and poetry between her and my devotion to the water, as this was not the intention that I set out in creating but naturally occurred in this editing process.

This fellowship experience truly reminded me of the beauty and challenges that come with fulfilling one’s destiny. More honestly, creating this film amidst the final year of my undergraduate semester was so thrilling and was a test of learning how to carry the blessings one prays for. It has been through this honesty with myself and asking for support from myself, my spirits, and my communities that I have been able to truly embrace the expansiveness of honing into my gift as a storyteller. It is in this embrace of rapid winds of opportunity and choice that I have gained new eyes to see the world.

With these new eyes I have learned what it means to embrace the speaking in riddles given to me by my father, gifted to him by his mother and father. These parables and poetry are the very essence of Yoruba cosmologies and spiritual practices. It is in this gift of proverbs that my film indigo: in dey go was born from.

indigo: in dey go, is a short film of my internal ponderings of what it has meant for me to be sent to earth and reflecting on my life mission. The life mission that is consistently unraveling and being made known to me as I work across various mediums of storytelling. In my description of calling this film a chorepoem I give deep reverence and homage to Ntozake Shange in her coining of the term choreopoems from her most notable literary piece, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. It is through the gift of her words and wisdom that I have been gifted more language to describe the process of creating poetic gestures that result in filmatic gestures and reflections of my inner and outer world.

I made this film amidst finishing my undergraduate degree in photography. Meaning I made this film at the same time as I embarked on my thesis exhibition presentation. During this process of making a film while working across several photographic printing processes and presentations let me think deeply about the process. As a visual artist, the process of creation is my devotion to curiosity, often times I am more interested in the process than the “final” output.

During this journey of creating my thesis project, scenes from my chorepoem film include still and moving images of the process of me making images, images where I am reflecting on the spirits that have known me before I knew their name. In the film I created a musical score and sampling of homage through the repetition of a scene from Julie Dashes’ Daughter of the Dust, a film critical to my reverence to African American and Black women filmmakers. In this sampling I loop the sound of the unborn daughter who narrates the film as she says "My story begun before I was born.” Upon showing this film it is no coincidence that on the day of the film premiere in August 2025, I had posted the still from the film of the portion I sample on the same day just 4 years prior. To learn that while in ATLANTA. It was a reminder to keep going, to keep listening to the stories that come to me. As you read this I pray you are able to tend to the stories that come to you and trust you to tell your/their/ our story, I believe in you.