Ope Adedeji

Oyster River Pages: We often think of ourselves as writing or making art, but the process often changes or makes us as well. How do you feel like your writing or art makes you?

Ope Adedeji: When I take a walk down my street every evening, there’s a woman riding a bicycle. She always has a hijab on and a smile plastered across her face, I wonder what her story is. Or the tree that houses too many birds across from my building, what’s it’s story? In the course of my writing career, my eyes, mind and other sensory organs have become more attuned to people, other living things and interestingly, inanimate objects. I’m curious about what drives them? Why is their face so drawn? Where do they come from? 

If I wasn’t a writer, I’m not sure that I’d pay close attention to these things. In a sense, this skill helps me even outside of writing. More attuned to body language, I tend to listen more, to check-in more, to be there — very useful during this pandemic. 

On a larger scale, this, in connection with my writing, has changed the way I see the world and created a deep-rooted curiosity to grasp, explore, take in more of it. 

ORP: What do you hope readers or viewers of your piece take from it?

OA: It’s interesting how the world is changing in such a swift way. Globally, 2020 was the year in which everyone felt almost the same level of fear, nervousness, sadness. The range of emotions we felt seeped into our dreams and people started to have weird dreams. That’s where this story comes from. 

I have never experienced anything like it, anything so strong and capable of reminding humans globally that we are first human, before being Christian or Muslim or belonging to a particular race or group. I want readers to recognise and remember this for years to come. 

ORP: How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your relationship to art and writing, either in the creation of it or the consumption of it?

AO: The pandemic made me a lot more interested in art that gives me joy and sends me into fits of laughter. I enjoy art that is introspective and deep, on a normal day. But these days, I just want to laugh. I’m watching more sitcoms that are just downright ridiculous and hilarious, and reading things that make me laugh. This is super useful for my mental health and is gradually informing the way I think about the stories I write. Stories about nothing i.e plotless stories are stories too. They’re a lot like real life than we think. 

ORP: Do you believe that hope is a luxury, a responsibility, a danger, or something else? Why?

AO: Hope is definitely a luxury. I can’t explain why. But 2020 taught me this. 

ORP: If you could choose one writer or artist, living or dead, as a best friend or mentor, who would it be? Why?

AO: Toni Morrison! She helped me survive the worst of times, and she was there for me during the best of times. Her writing and stories defy the rules of storytelling and writing. Beloved showed me things I never imagined I could do with my own work. There’s a level of courage that I wish I had the opportunity to learn from her. 

ORP: What do you think is the most essential advice that most writers and artists ignore?

AO: I’m not sure this is essential advice, but I think writers need to explore more with style, with format, with language. With stories too. Just experiment. Writing in the comfort zone, within the limits of your ability (and following in steps of older writers) might feel like the sane, normal thing to do. But that’s rarely how great stories get told. 

Ope Adedeji dreams about bridging the gender equality gap and destroying the patriarchy. She is a lawyer and editor. Her work has appeared on Arts and Africa, Afreada, Catapult, McSweeney's Quarterlyand is forthcoming in others. She was shortlisted for the 2018 Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Nonfiction, is an Artist Managers and Literary Activists fellow and is the winner of the 2019 Brittle Paper Awards For Fiction. She is a nominee for the US National Magazine Award For Fiction for her story published in McSweeney's Quarterly. She is an alumnus of the 2018 Purple Hibiscus Trust Creative Writing Workshop taught by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. If you do not find her reading, you'll find her writing. She is on Twitter: @opeeee_ and Instagram: @opeadede. Read her timely story “A House Full of Spirits” in Issue 4.1.