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From writing letters to her mom when she was away at work, to her first poetry performance in Grade 10 to serving as Edmonton’s ninth Poet Laureate, poetry has always played a role in Titilope Sonuga’s life–even when it was not the main focus. When the time came to think about her career, despite being a ravenous reader and an avid writer it never occurred to her that she could make a career out of being an artist. Since Titilope also enjoyed the sciences, she decided to pursue a stable career as a civil engineer through the U of A’s Faculty of Engineering. Despite the challenges and demands of the program, she continued to foster her love of poetry and performing on the side.
Prior to graduating with a BSc (CivEng) in 2008 and starting her engineering career, Titilope had already taken a step towards imagining a life as a full-time poet by starting a poetry night at a local family-owned restaurant. “That's where I started to see that my work had weight — that it mattered in the community,” Titilope says. Titilope started performing and hosting workshops out of town and it eventually became clear to her that poetry was starting to eclipse her engineering career.
In 2011, Titilope was accepted into an all-women artist residency program in Cape Town, South Africa. She spent a month living as a full-time artist, completely immersed in writing and creating without having to think about going to work the next day. "[The residency] was the first seed that was planted that let me know that [being an artist] is possible,” Titilppe says. When she returned from her residency, something fundamental had shifted inside of her.
“I was enjoying engineering and the work that I was doing, but I just knew that I felt more excited and more vibrant when I was on stage.” Titilope realised that she loved poetry so much that she felt sad whenever she wasn’t doing it, so in 2013 she gave herself six months to throw everything she had into making a life out of poetry–and was fortunate to have the security of knowing that she had a job still waiting for her if she wanted to go back to engineering.
Just like Titilope, through my studies as a physics major who also writes creatively, I have come to recognize the relationship between science and the arts. Titilope not only attributes her engineering degree to her taste for "clean lines and symmetry," but it has also taught her to have the discipline to see a project all the way through. “Inspiration isn't what has kept me in this game this long," Titilope says. "Inspiration is fleeting! But what has kept me is discipline and steadfastness to the work.”
Since leaving her engineering job, Titilope has created numerous works that have affected people around the world. With three award-winning poetry collections, two spoken word albums and three plays in her repertoire, Titilope has also used her passion for poetry to work on scripts for global advertising campaigns for various brands such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google and The MacArthur Foundation.
It was incredibly humbling to hear Titilope say that while accomplishments and achievements are beautiful, they are not central to her life. For her, being a part of the “Global Artistic Village” and using the arts to connect with people around the world is what makes her most proud. Similarly, Titilope finds an abundance of solace and pride in being a wife and mother. “I am building my life so that my kids can know how expansive the human experience can be."
While Titilope’s path may seem like every budding artist’s dream, the path that she has taken is nothing like the path that she saw for herself at the beginning and even the end of her undergraduate degree. As I’m approaching the final months of my own degree, the thought of ending up on a completely different path than the one I imagine for myself absolutely terrifies me. But Titilope’s view of her journey offers a refreshing look at what it is like to grow and change interests and careers as you experience more of life:
“I think part of the beauty and the challenge of what I do is that I'm sort of making it up as I go along. I'm creating the blueprints as I'm living in it and that can be really challenging at times, but also really liberating and exciting to continue to find new pathways for my work.”
Titilope’s courage to face change head-on in her life is nothing short of inspiring, but what really moves me is that she does not shy away from the reality of failure. “Every evolutionary moment in my life is marked by some failure,” Titilope boldly states. When she left her job and moved back to Lagos, Nigeria, where she was born and raised, Titilope was able to build an audience and name for herself but ran into financial challenges. “It felt like I was going to be living on passion my whole life," Titilope says. It didn’t make it any easier to see her prior classmates advancing in their careers while she was still trying to find her footing.
By 2015, Titilope was back in Edmonton and at the lowest part of her artistic journey. At this point, she had been chasing her calling for a couple of years and, while people recognized her and her work, applause and accolades, unfortunately, wouldn’t be enough to build a sustainable life. Ready to throw in the towel, Titilope drafted an email to her previous company asking for her job back. “I felt like I had made a huge mistake like I had failed and disappointed myself and everybody.”
But before getting the chance to send this email, she got a call from a close friend in Nigeria who had seen her work and knew that Titilope would be making a mistake if she gave up at that moment. Coincidentally, her friend ran a media production company that happened to have a job opening that Titilope could fill. So she packed up her bags, re-strategized and tried again. “The work has continued to make way for me and I feel like I'm in my calling," Titilope says. "I feel like I'm on the right path.”
Her experience is a much-needed reminder that failure is a natural part of growth. I would even go as far as to say that failure is necessary for growth because what happens when something doesn’t work out for you? You take a step back, reassess your situation, and try another method. The shift between careers does not have to happen overnight. It is important to build up your support systems and resources over time so that when you do feel secure and ready, you can take that leap and know that you have a safety net just in case. “There is no rush. There is no assigned timeline. It's okay to take your time and do things in incremental steps.”
This mindset of perseverance, diligence and commitment to her work is what has pushed Titilope to where she is today. Titilope embodies and passionately shares the influence that poetry can have in an individual’s life. I found myself deeply moved by Titilope’s commitment to the transformative nature of poetry as she spoke about it as a spiritual experience for her. Similar to the feeling you have when you listen to a song that you really love, or are part of a massive sing-along at a concert, Titilope shares that when you connect with others through poetry and the arts, something happens inside of you that feels really transcendent. “We are beyond what we do for a living or how much money we make. In one moment of pure truth, we are connected to something that is centred in the arts and that can make each of us feel less alone and more alive.”
About Francine
Francine is in her fifth and final year of the secondary education program with the fun combination of being a physics major and English minor (she swears there’s more overlap than it seems!) She is very importantly also an avid lover of bread and cats. When she's not spending time working and studying, you can catch her reading a book, playing video games, or finding various ways to be a loaf.