Omotayo Jolaosho
Omotayo Jolaosho passed away on October 22, 2021. Read Omotayo's obituary here.
About Omotayo
Jolaosho’s research focuses on political performances, collective activism, protests, and bodily experience. Overarching themes in Jolaosho’s writings include the multiple roles of freedom songs and protest dances at activist events, the significance of gesture and the moving body for political mobilization, gendered experiences of activism, and strategies for societal transformation among marginalized communities. Jolaosho has worked with activist organizations in Johannesburg, South Africa, including the Anti-Privatisation Forum and the 1-in-9 Campaign.
Contributions
The Enduring Urgency of Black Breath
In the News
Publications
Examines the role of singing at contemporary protest events and how musical qualities of antiphony, repetitive variation, and embodied rhythm facilitated activists’ political interventions.
Examines women activists’ adaptation of performance techniques (including singing and the construction of rituals) towards their own wellness as well as to contest male domination in the social movements in which they participated.
Discusses the first transnational anthology focused on African women's narratives of resistance to the challenges they experience on the continent and within its diaspora.
Examines cross-circulations between the U.S. and South Africa, the article shows how music constituted shared interpretive space linking African-American and black South African activist communities in combating systems of racial injustice in both countries.