Omope Carter Daboiku leads a Storytelling Workshop at the 2022 Black Farming Conference

Storytelling Workshop, by Omope Carter Daboiku, Agraria Artist in Residence
The “Oral Tradition” of sharing wisdom from mouth to ear let our Ancestors preserve and pass heritage and traditions to subsequent generations long before given New World language literacy. Access to computer software now gives technological options, but the foundation still requires the element of intent. Whether writing a business plan, pitching a product or service, or recruiting volunteers, you have to tell a good story. Together, we explore purpose, process, and production styles.
Known as Mama O or O.C., Omope Carter Daboiku, is Agraria’s first Artist- and Storyteller-in-Residence. A native of Ironton, in what she calls “southern southern Ohio,” she identifies as an Appalachian of mixed heritage. She migrated to Cincinnati in 1972, where she spent 30 years and made a name for herself as a storyteller, performance artist, educator, and writer.
She has performed and led story circles throughout the US and internationally. After moving to Dayton in 2012, she founded the Dunbar Literary Circle for the National Park Service and served as artist-in-residence for the historic home of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. She is also a community producer for WYSO (91.3 FM) radio’s West Dayton Stories.
In 2020, O.C. found another calling that harkens back to the agricultural roots of her childhood: teaching urban people how to grow their own food. She established an open garden for residents of the DeSoto Bass community and also became manager of Edgemont Community Coalition’s Solar Garden. That led her to Agraria as a Fellow in the first year of Agraria’s Regenerative Farmer Fellowship program.
As Artist-and Storyteller-in-Residence at Agraria, O.C. has led two story collection projects and regularly creates programming in support of Agraria's education and media teams.