Lola Olufemi Explained

Lola Olufemi
Birth Place:London, England
Alma Mater:Selwyn College, Cambridge
Occupation:Writer
Yearsactive:–present

Lola Olufemi (; born 1996) is a British writer.[1] [2] She is an organiser with the London Feminist Library,[3] and her writing has been published in many national and international magazines and newspapers. She is the author of Experiments in Imagining Otherwise and Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power,[4] and the co-editor of A FLY Girl's Guide to University: Being a Woman of Colour at Cambridge and Other Institutions of Power and Elitism.

Early life and education

Olufemi was born and grew up in London, their family home being in Edmonton. She attended Enfield County School[5] and studied English at Selwyn College, Cambridge.[6] She was the Women's Officer for Cambridge University Students' Union,[7] and one of the facilitator's of FLY, the university's network for women and non-binary people of colour.[8]

She is currently researching for a PhD, with a TECHNE AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship with the University of Westminster and Stuart Hall Foundation.[9] [10]

Work

Writing and speaking

Olufemi has written and spoken on a range of topics including: art and culture;[11] [12] feminism, gender and sexism (including the Women's Strike and Time's Up movements);[13] [14] [15] food equality;[16] climate justice and race;[17] race and racism, including archives of radical Black British activism;[18] and higher education issues, including institutional justice and sexual harassment in universities,[7] [19] and decolonising practices in higher education[20] [21] (for which she was targeted with a "vicious and misleading"[22] sexist and racist harassment by British right-wing press).[23] [24] [25]

Poet Jay Bernard interviewed Olufemi for Housmans Bookshop, and the pair discussed the "internationalist ethos of black feminist movements in the 70s and 80s", connecting feminist struggles such as protests against sexual violence with opposition to settler colonialism.[26]

Olufemi with Che Gossett and Sarah Shin organised a month-long programme of talks and events under the title "Revolution is not a one-time event" in summer 2020. The launch event, hosted by Silver Press on 9 June 2020, took the form of a fundraiser for Black liberation. The fundraiser was hosted by Akwugo Emejulu and featured Che Gossett, Helena Rubinstein, Ru Kaur, Olufemi and Amrit Wilson in conversation.[27]

Art

Olufemi is a member of "bare minimum", an interdisciplinary, anti-work arts collective. She has been commissioned by Tate Modern to run a feminist workshop as part of a Feminist Library event.[28]

Influences

Olufemi cites several key feminist, trans-inclusive,[29] and Black feminist thinkers and collectives that have influenced her, in interviews and her writing, including: Angela Davis, Ann Oakley, Assata Shakur, Audre Lorde, the Brixton Black Women's Group, the British Black Panthers, Claudia Jones, the Combahee River Collective, Gail Lewis, the Grunwick Strikers, Judith Butler, Kate Millett, Liz Obi, Olive Morris, OWAAD, Saidya Hartman,[30] [31] Stella Dadzie, Shulamith Firestone, Silvia Federici, Selma James, the Young Lords, and Sylvia Wynter.[32]

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: ICA Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power . . 2020-04-21 .
  2. Web site: we should all be feminist killjoys like cambridge student leader lola olufemi . Gush . Charlotte . 2017-10-30 . . 2020-04-21 .
  3. Web site: Introducing our new Volunteer Coordinator . . 2020-04-21 .
  4. Web site: A commitment to care... and to disobedience . Josie . Sparrow . Lola Olufemi . . 2020-04-21 .
  5. Web site: I'm proud my daughter took on Cambridge for its 'colonial curriculum'. Barney. Davis. Eleanor Rose. 2017-10-27. Evening Standard. 2020-04-21.
  6. Web site: Author Details. New Internationalist. 2020-04-21.
  7. News: Olufemi. Lola. The fight against sexual misconduct at universities must go on. 2018-02-09. The Guardian. 2020-04-21. 0261-3077.
  8. News: Penney . Sophie . 'It's exhausting living as the other': FLY co-founder talks race in Cambridge . 2021-06-24 . Varsity Online . Varsity Publications Ltd. . 2016-10-13 . en.
  9. Web site: University of Westminster, London. Doctoral researcher Lola Olufemi awarded techne AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship. 2020-10-29. www.westminster.ac.uk.
  10. Web site: Lola Olufemi. 2020-10-29. Stuart Hall Foundation.
  11. Web site: Victoria Sin: 'I'm trying to break down the binary of thinking and feeling'. www.sleek-mag.com. Lola. Olufemi. 2020-03-11. 2020-04-21.
  12. Web site: Olufemi . Lola. 5 Questions for Zadie Smith . 2017-04-26. Fly.. 2020-04-21.
  13. Web site: Why imagination is the most powerful tool that feminists have at our disposal. Lola. Olufemi. 2020-03-26. gal-dem. 2020-04-21.
  14. Web site: Women: stop working!. 2019-03-07. New Internationalist. Lola . Olufemi. 2020-04-21.
  15. Web site: Time is not Up for the fight against sexual violence in Cambridge. Lola. Olufemi. Varsity Online. 2018-01-25. 2020-04-21.
  16. Web site: Poor Mothers Do Not Have The Luxury Of Considering The Nutritional Value Of Food. Olufemi. Lola. www.refinery29.com. 2020-03-19. 2020-04-21.
  17. Web site: Cambridge Literary Festival: Guppi Bola, Priyamvada Gopal & Lola Olufemi - The Unsustainable Whiteness of Green. Cambridge Live. 2020-04-21.
  18. Web site: Who were the British Black Panthers?. 2019-08-28. Lola . Olufemi. New Internationalist. 2020-04-21.
  19. Web site: What does institutional justice look like?. Lola. Olufemi. 2018-09-10. New Internationalist. 2020-04-21.
  20. Web site: How to navigate a white institution: with Priyamvada Gopal, Ọrẹ Ogunbiyi and Lola Olufemi. Versobooks.com. 2019-06-11. 2020-04-21.
  21. Web site: The decolonising of SOAS and Cambridge in conversation. Neenan. Jack. 2018-01-24. SOAS Blog. 2020-04-21.
  22. Web site: Cambridge condemns abuse of student following literature curriculum coverage. Lisa. Campbell. The Bookseller. 2017-10-25. 2020-04-21.
  23. Web site: Postcolonial writing is not an afterthought; it is British literature. Varsity Online. Lola . Olufemi. 2017-06-21. 2020-04-21.
  24. Web site: We stand in solidarity with Lola Olufemi. 2017-10-26. gal-dem. 2020-04-21.
  25. Web site: Ruling. www.ipso.co.uk. 2020-04-21.
  26. Web site: 2020-05-26. Guest Post: Lola Olufemi in conversation with Jay Bernard. 2020-09-12. Housmans Bookshop.
  27. Web site: Revolution is not a one-time event. 2021-01-22. The White Review.
  28. Web site: Feminist Power Station: With Feminist Library. Workshop at Tate Modern. 2020-04-21.
  29. Web site: Trans allies pull out of University of Oxford feminist conference over ties with 'clearly transphobic' Woman's Place UK. Vic. Parsons. 2020-03-03. PinkNews. 2020-04-21.
  30. Web site: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Saidiya Hartman and Lola Olufemi. Podcast. London Review Bookshop. Mixcloud. 2020-04-21.
  31. Web site: Podcast: Saidiya Hartman and Lola Olufemi: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. 2019-11-20. London Review of Books. 2020-04-21.
  32. Web site: Feminism, Interrupted: A Conversation with Lola Olufemi and Momtaza Mehri . London Review Bookshop blog. 2020-04-22.
  33. Web site: Lola Olufemi, Odelia Younge, Waithera Sebatindira, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan. Verve Poetry Press. 2020-04-21.
  34. Web site: 2020 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize: Shortlist. 2021-01-22. Wasafiri Magazine.

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