What do Kentucky and Nigeria look like in one image?

By Christa Iwu

Agbo obia (ah-BOH oh-bee-uh) means adolescence - young woman - in igbo, my mother’s tongue. ADOLESCENCE: edges first is a poetry narrative that traces my growth across three chapters of adolescence as a Nigerian Appalachian. The RUX grant enabled me to complete the poetry collection, explore this cultural connection, and produce a culminating event in which local community will step into my childhood and celebrate how diverse experiences can bring us together.

Step into my childhood

The culminating event includes: a childhood bedroom simulation items from my first adolescence; food that features staples from both Nigeria and the south; space for intentional reflection; and a backdrop of play-centered activities that set attendees up to receive these elements through the lens of childhood openness and curiosity.

The following questions drive the culminating event:

Belonging - How can identity stall or strengthen our ability to feel connected to those around us?
Family - What do we inherit from our ancestors? And how does it influence the stories we tell about our lives?
Youthfulness - What elements of childhood do we bring with us as we grow beyond our first adolescence?

The following images show the creative process of translating these themes into an event that invites my community into step into my experience.

CHILD LIKE FIRE

One of the poems I completed during the grant cycle is CHILD LIKE FIRE, which was born at the Loretto Motherhouse in Nyrinx Kentucky. Surrounded by the foothills of Appalachia, I connected with the land and the spirits of enslaved women who developed the local grounds. I imagined the solitude of a woman whose ancestral ties were distant physically yet strong spiritually as she used the land and crafted meals in a confined space. In exploring my own spiritual connection to distant relatives in Nigeria - including a grandmother I’ve never met - I created a piece that speaks to how features of the land and reflection during craft can carry inheritance. This grant allowed me to close the loop of this poem.

CHILD LIKE FIRE

The music my grandmother gave me is child, like fire

The gallop, nativity sun

Bright zinc and home cast in starlight

Everything that the sky makes, and

Everything that the air aspires to be

I will visit soon, and very soon again

My own theatre show

Delusions of grandeur

Grounded in law

I will hear it louder still, one day

My mother’s mother’s tongue

Honing pidgin

Real talk and chin chin

Chin to the earth child!

You got a whole world of history here

in this one room!

Ose, wild onion, egusi, companion

Here are the parts -

Let me tell you what I See

An island that welcomes,

soft edges, sweet warm shores

An island inside…

Come closer - ahurum gi nanya

Dwell - boil all the way down

Look around.

I am here.

—Christa Iwu & Jackie Pallesen

The Kentucky Intercultural Microgrant Program is a seed grant to support two or more individuals or organizations collaborating across distance, difference, or sector on projects that celebrate and connect Kentucky's people and places. Our 2025 funding partners included Kentucky Arts Council, Fund for the Arts, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, EarthTools, and individual donors. Learn more at kyrux.org/microgrants