Ahamefule Oluo Brings Interconnectedness to Life in 'The Things Around Us' Tour

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Ahamefule Oluo brings their magic to the Field Center this Thursday. Photo by Hanan Yajoor  [/caption]

Art news by Diane Urbani de la Paz

Look up Ahamefule Oluo online and you first see the label “American musician.”

But oh, the true tale is so much more than that.

Oluo’s history includes being Town Hall Seattle’s first artist-in-residence in 2012, as well as collaborations with numerous Seattle bands and musical alliances, including the jazz group Industrial Revelation. He and his sister Ijeoma Oluo, author of the 2019 best seller “So You Want to Talk about Race” and other books, appear in a film about their family titled “Thin Skin.”

What you may not instantly find on the internet is that Oluo lives in Coyle, deep in the woods of rural Jefferson County. They now live a long way, psychologically and physically, from Seattle, in a cabin near the Hood Canal.

This is where Oluo has shaped “The Things Around Us,” an interweaving of original music and stories about life’s interconnectedness, beauty and absurdity. To create their tapestry, the performer layers vocals, clarinet, trumpet, dark humor, looping technology and rhythms played on cardboard shipping boxes.

Oluo, who uses they/them pronouns, brings their solo show “The Things Around Us” to Field Arts & Events Hall in Port Angeles on Thursday. Tickets and information about the 7 p.m. performance, a kind of one-person symphonic experience, are at fieldhallevents.org.

“I want people to have a really special experience,” Oluo said in an interview.

In the show, they offer deeply personal reflections, stories of encounters with acquaintances and strangers, heartbeat-like rhythms on cardboard boxes, thoughts on basketball — and music to stitch it all together.

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Photo by Alex Dugan  [/caption]

“Things” premiered at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art’s TBA Festival in September 2024. The show went on to many more dates around the country, including at New York City’s LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Oklahoma City’s Contemporary Arts Center and, this past spring, back to Oluo’s home town of Seattle.

Following their 10-night stand at the Intiman Theatre’s Broadway Performance Hall, Oluo let fly about their feelings on Instagram.

“Usually, when I finish a run of a show, the last thing I want to do is go on social media but this time I can’t help but share how grateful I am … 10 amazing shows with 10 amazing audiences!!! That was absolutely incredible!!!” Oluo wrote.

“There is nothing in life that I care more about than trying to give people meaningful experiences, and I get to pursue that as a career. It is not lost on me how rare and special that is … thank you [to] everyone who worked on the show, it was a beautiful dream!!!!”

When it comes to performing “The Things around Us” on the Olympic Peninsula, though, Oluo takes nothing for granted.

It could be “a challenge to fill up [Field] Hall,” they said, acknowledging that they’re just not well-known out here, and this show is different fare.

Yet “Things” has a way of speaking to a variety of people, in Oluo’s experience. They’re a Black person, after all, whose audiences are typically white and older. The response has been largely positive; there have been interesting post-show conversations.

One man, after a performance in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, came right out and asked if it was strange to perform this show for a theater full of white people who are probably not from the same socioeconomic class.

“It can be,” they replied.

And Oluo will keep on, regardless. Right after Port Angeles, they will fly to England to perform at the Leeds Playhouse. The “Things Around Us” tour also takes Oluo to the Paramount in Boston for four nights and to Sarasota, Fla., for five shows before they return home to Coyle.