fageyinbo, bimpé

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Bimpé Fageyinbo is a Nigerian artist—a poet, filmmaker, and photographer. Her work utilizes poetry, film, prose, and documentary photography to answer our most profound inner questions, exploring issues related to race, culture, faith, introspection, and identity. Fageyinbo’s literary and visual storytelling is notably poetic, experimental, and conceptual—organically weaving the human experience with social anthropological perspectives. 

Fageyinbo is the author of so maybe that’s the bee’s weakness (2010) and what was me (2017), the first two books of poetry in a continuing memoir series. Her recent collaborative work includes the A Womb of Violet Anthologies, archived in collections at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Library of Congress.

Fageyinbo’s narrative-short film, boju weyín (2022), is an adaptation of her 2010 book, so maybe that’s the bees weakness. The film uses experimental storytelling techniques to explore love, heartbreak, and grief and invites viewers to share in poignant moments of reflection and a path toward healing. boju weyín has received multiple film festival Official Selections and was awarded Honorable Mention for Best Narrative Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards (March 2022). 

In 2023, Fageyinbo was commissioned to write and perform her poem “freedom for freedom” at the historic Harriet Tubman Monument Unveiling ceremony, hosted by Audible and the City of Newark, NJ. Adapted into a poetry film, “freedom for freedom,” directed by Yuri Alves and produced by DreamPlay Media, was awarded the 2024 Jury’s Stellar Award at the 43rd Thomas Edison Film Festival.

Fageyinbo is a 2024 NJ State Council on the Arts Fellow, and is currently working on a third book of poetry, a photo documentary about mobility in Nigeria, and continues to teach at the university level, teaching courses in Journalism and Media, Creative Writing, African Diasporic Literature, and Film.

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EDUCATION

  • B.A Journalism and Media Studies /Rutgers University

  • M.A Public Affairs & Administration / Rutgers University

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

POETRY

FILM

PHOTOGRAPHY

  • Philanthropy Journal / April 2017

ESSAY

  • FIGHTING FOR HOPE IN IMPOSSIBLE TIMES, AN ESSAY BY BIMPÉ / Symphony of Survival Archive—Newark Symphony Hall—July 2020

EDITORIAL CITATIONS & PRESS

READINGS + INVITED TALKS (SELECT)

EXHIBITIONS + PUBLIC PROGRAMS (SELECT)

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY (SELECT)

  • Comot for Road: The Fight for Mobility, Documentary Photography Series, Lagos Nigeria, 2017-Present

  • Look for Colors, Photography Series, Nigeria, 2016

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

  • Adjunct Professor, School of Communications and Media

(Montclair State University/2022- Present)

  • Adjunct Professor of Journalism & Media Studies, Department of Arts, Culture + Media

(Rutgers University-Newark/2016-2021)