Akilah Oliver (1961-2011)
Photo by Theresa Hurst
Then I command the stage again, as embodied activism this time a gone time
from a before then if so therefore without pretense this phrase, this constituent,
this color lily I’ve never seen before a calculated blue.
(from The Putterers Notebook)
We have just learned that our beloved friend, poet, teacher, performer, activist, mother, sister, Akilah Oliver passed away in her home in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Akilah Oliver was born in 1961 in St. Louis and grew up in Los Angeles. In the 1990’s she founded and performed with the feminist performance collective Sacred Naked Nature Girls. For several years, Akilah lived in Boulder, Colorado, where she raised her son Oluchi McDonald (1982-2003) and was a teacher, activist and beloved member of the community at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Recently, in New York City, Akilah taught poetry and writing at The New School, Pratt Insitute and The Poetry Project, where she also served as Monday Night Readings Coordinator in 07-08. She was a PhD candidate at The European Graduate School and a member of the Belladonna* Collaborative.
Akilah Oliver’s books include A Toast In The House of Friends (Coffee House 2009) the she said dialogues: flesh memory, which received the PEN Beyond Margins Award, and the chapbooks An Arriving Guard of Angels, Thusly Coming to Greet (Farfalla, McMillan & Parrish, 2004), The Putterer’s Notebook (Belladonna 2006), “a(A)ugust” (Yo-Yo Labs, 2007) and A Collection of Objects (Tente 2010). She read and performed her work as a solo artist throughout the United States and collaborated with a variety of artists and musicians including Tyler Burba, Anne Waldman, Ambrose Bye and Rasul Siddik. She was artist in residence at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Los Angeles, and received grants from the California Arts Council, The Flintridge Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Among her many projects, she was writing a book-length theory of lamentation.
We feel this loss deeply, in all the communities where Akilah shared her energy, strength, life, wisdom and spirit. Information about services and memorial will be forthcoming.
This news was very shocking… such a young and tender woman…. Remembering her energy and presence at Naropa University when I was a staff member there over many years…
So kind was she… and so strong when her son passed away… she shared her sorrow and left a mark with me as she expressed her bond with her son and the unfairness of his sudden death…I will think of her often.
My Love to you Akilah, My Love to you….
We’ll sincerely miss you, Aki. You forged your own voice and in doing so became the voice of many. It is not without extreme significance that you have left us.
she is not gone
as long as we have
this song
her song is going on
longer than something
we become
a song
the sun
a bee
someone
we love
in loving memory of
dear heart friend Akilah Oliver
February 24 2011
i say i say i say
i say i say i say
i say that sunlight needs to last longer
engendered graced
my friend and teacher
i miss you
Such a spirit. I’m so sorry.
A true brilliant…sweetheart…full of love and grace …when you were in her presence you felt a kinship…very unique to her open heart….major poetess…she is missed already…rest in peace …poetry
One of the most powerful and fierce voices of our generation. A brilliant poet, an extraordinary heart with extraordinary strength, and my friend. Yes we will, Hold The Space. We love you.
As a former Naropa University student, I am deeply saddened by the news of Akilah’s passing. She brought such a warm, gentle yet fierce presence to this institution, and the Boulder community. I miss her greatly.
Akilah, what is there to say, but in saying and not saying it. What I learned from you: not to talk when lacking sincerity. What I sometimes was reluctant to say around you, what you taught me without saying. That I understood so much when you didn’t say and that we have so much to say now that we can’t say them. One day or never, these things will be said and until then I’ll think of you, every so often, dreaming of our silly plans for the “Institute For the Hot Mess” and feeling now that what we won’t do sustains us.
Oh Akilah I was feeling you all day today. I love you so much. I grieve you. I grieve you. I grieve…
The world has lost an amazing light. Poetry, literature was transformed by her work. I was looking forward to studying with Akilah this summer–whatever the experience, her absence will be felt deeply. May she be embracing her son at this moment…
Knowing her from the beginning of this all…
Love. You got it right, A.
bb
This is truly sad news. I enjoyed having known her during my time at Naropa. She was always so generous and friendly. Prayers and Blessings.
The Stinging of the Bee ™
In memory of Akilah Oliver
I knew you not
Never did I ear a whisper of sound from your voice
I can only see reflections of the advancement of your choice
To select feminine freedom, assertive liberation
Mourn through kindred souls over verse and dissertation
The bitter sting of life, incomparable, honeysuckle nectar
I should have said I loved you
But you’ve already said it better
This is not my farewell for I shall recourse your song
Examine your teachings and right unknown wrong
Forgive me, just once, and I shall never err again
As I recall the memory of you writing through the rain
Dance my sweet flower
Dance forever more, for I will finally meet you
Scribing on Heavens floor
A.Slate © 2/24/11
For those of you in the city, we have set up a small memorial outside of Akilah’s apartment, including candles, flowers, and a book there for anyone to write to her.
All our love to Akilah
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!Akilah Nayo Oliver, Siempre Presente! Your voice, your canto, your strength, your joy in all of us, 1000+ thanks & blessings, beautiful one!
It was with great joy that I had gotten to meet Akilah, listen to her work at IVY Writers in Paris when she came here, converse with her at AWP and over coffees when in Paris or oddly other towns (we were lucky, or I was, to run into her in so many places in the states and abroad!).
Her generousity of spirit and her creative and intellectual energy made her constantly contagiously exciting to be around. She will be missed greatly, and it is such an enormous shock to hear of her loss this morning.
For those of you in NYC, please say a poem for her from all of us so far away. Thank you, Poetry Project, for letting us know of such a great loss.
loss, loss & more loss
I was lucky enough to meet Akilah (the first time) through the Bowery Arts & Sciences Reading Series at the Graduate Center several years ago. She was always kind, gentle, talented, thoughtful and warm… every time we met. Her writing spanned the genres and likened to create new ones. I’ll miss her smile, her maternal encouragement, latest creative ideas and her wit.
-rest well beautiful soul
your memory lives
It is with great sadness that I hear about the death of this extraordinary woman, a poet and thinker, who studied with us in Saas-Fee for two summers and attended my Hegel workshop “The Second Negation” only a few months ago. I was her PhD adviser and expected from her to bring forward the affirmation of poetry and philosophy in an unexpected way. Thank you, Akilah, for the time we spent together – it was a rare gift.
Wolfgang Schirmacher, Program Director MC, European Graduate School EGS
I am so sad to learn that Akilah has passed on. She taught a wonderful poetry class at Naropa and I remember her poise, dignity, fearless travel into the deepest places, activism, respectful honoring of each student, and ability to inspire and challenge us toward heartful accountability and courage.
I remember you and keep you alive in me, Akilah. Bless you on your journey. May you find great joy in reunion with love and peace.
akilah, you are in my thoughts and my heart, and i am praying to the universe for your transition into the space were bodies cease but spirits are reborn. may you get to embrace your loved ones, again. we will continue to hold space for you here.
i will still go have that cup of tea/coffee we were planning to have just a couple weeks ago. i will bring your poetry with me, because through it you shall never be gone.
love always…
Barely and touchingly…she and I had so much more to do. My loss is all our loss. A grief.
“In the beginning there was a river. The river became a road and the road branched out to the whole world. And because the road was once a river it was always hungry.” – Ben Okri, The Famished Road
Missing you Akilah.
- Denise Uyehara, your fellow Sacred Naked Nature Girl
Akila,
May these words become wings of love
to carry you directly to your
chosen destination.
It was an honor to have shared space and broken bread with you.
Wishing you a gentle journey.
Akilah is light now. Such a powerful sister, well respected in the Los Angeles poetry community.
Such a powerful sister, respected in our community, the World Stage Performance Gallery in Los Angeles. Light now.
These sayings get tossed around a lot at Naropa but she truly was a person who held the space and kept the world safe for poetry. Namaste, Akilah, as you come and go.
sad day…..rest in peace….
Thank you so much for passing on this news about our sister Akilah. I have not been in touch with her for some years now and it was certainly a shock to hear of her death. I always felt confident that where ever she was, transformation and awakening was taking place. She couldn’t help but create that in whatever she did and in whomever she touched. Her work is finished now, here on this plane. I am saddened for our loss. I rejoice that she is reunited with her family in spirit, especially with her dear son Oluchi. Peace be unto all who lives she has touched…..
She must of been about 4 when the city went up in flames. Who knows the full road since then then. A lack of medical justice is likely only one shard of reality that hit her far too hard. Perhaps her fixation on grief was an embrace and exploration of other unspeakable dying dreams. A survivor who flipped to the sweeter side of the 45 to find a bitter street.
She is the great American grandmother who should of been, and she sadly knew it all to well. Her words are one thing the strength of spirit that got her this far is another.
I’m so saddened and shocked by the news. I’m sorry i cancelled our appt. last week and was trying to connect to reschedule. Her brilliance of spirit and intellect will be sorely missed. She was a precious being.
love, love, and more love for this woman who was as soft and brilliant as the sunset itself: all glowing question, all warm articulation. my very body is different for having known you. u are forever my poetry mama. forever my friend.
I did not have the good fortune to meet Akilah, but reading the testimonies posted here brings tears to my eyes and a heartache as you have all commemorated a smart, brave and loving soul.
I’m blown away. The world has lost a tremendous person. Too early. – I send my heart to all family and friends. Peace and love…
This shocking and terribly sad news enveloped us tonight, just three days past Akilah’s departure… I am stunned, and in such sorrow. What a beautiful life, voice, presence. I cannot imagine Naropa–or our world–without her. May she be at peace.
I so much enjoyed sharing time with Akilah in Paris in 2009, talking and laughing together with trumpeter,Rasul Siddik, while she was here to read, and in New York last spring, a time when she proposed that we do a jazz-poetry live music presentation. Sadly, this will not be. I appreciated Akilah for her poetry. I appreciated her for her critical analysis. I appreciated her world view; a relation to people and circumstances beyond her personal sphere.She and I shared a long walk and talk in Paris, a long walk and talk in Manhattan, memorable. Akilah was a distinguished poet,a caring mother and for me, a welcome presence who was easy to befriend. R.I.P. sister.
Akilah,
Four nights ago, I dreamed I was looking up the phrase “taken aback” in the dictionary. As I read these words, God said over my shoulder – “when human life goes beyond it’s context.”
And so Akilah… onward.
She was my peer. Her voracity was as important as her virtuosity — in everything she wrote, you have the sense of *testament* as well as thought and music. Living became an act of awareness and, thus, an examination, which galvanized her writing, performances and teaching. We must do whatever we can to keep her work alive. New editions, new media, videos, transcriptions. All of it.
Beloved Spirit,
I honour your fierceness. I honour your motherhood. I honour your womanhood. I honour the swirl of kaos of flesh memory we shared. I honour your prophetic presence. I honour your imprint on humanity and the generations to come. I honour you now, as you embrace Oluchi for eternity.
Blessings,
Rev. Rik Fire
Akilah, you were there when you didn’t have to be ~ but you had to have been ~ but how! ~ & how you were! You, your poetry, your life ~ Thank you for being so there, so on time ~ the dialogue continues ~ you are very here ~ love
Akilah was to be my first teacher at Naropa. From the great blue sky, may she look after us..
Akilah, amiga, maestra, madre, hermana, hermosa, belleza, dulzura, POETA humilde, POETA preciosa, POETA magnifica, POETA sin igual, POETA!
POETA SIEMPRE!
POETAAKILAH…tus palabras, tu presencia nos haran falta…
te mando un abrazo con mucho amor, y abrazos fuertes a tu querida familia…
lydia
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Thanks for helping make Naropa one of the most amazing parts of my life Akilah. May you walk in peace.
Akilah will remain in my memory as a gentle, free, loving spirit. During a collaboration we did on an interview of Erika Huggins, she was one of the first women to really engage me in connecting my political beliefs with my spiritual beliefs. She encouraged me to allow one to support the other. We shered friendship and companionship as young mothers and as writers, although she far surpassed me as a writer and poet. I really missed her companionship when she moved from the Bay Area. Does anyone know what happened to her research on the Gullah? My love, blessings and condolences to the family. At first I thought this was a mistake since we just got the word that Akilah the Woman Dread had made her transition on March 7. May they both Rise in Power as they Rest in Paradise!
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