Home is a complex subject, and that’s why it makes a good topic for conversation.
Home shapes us, it holds and nurtures us. Home can be somewhere we want to escape to, or escape from. The last year has also made us think about home in a different way; it’s been our place of work too. And what of the person not born in a particular place, but who has chosen to make their home there? What is their sense of belonging?
These and many more areas are covered in a fascinating conversation with cultural leader and polymath, Chinonyerem Odimba.
Chinonyerem is the incoming Artistic Director and CEO of tiata fahodzi – a company that places the stories of British African-heritage communities at its core.
A Playwright, Screenwriter, Director, Poet and Chair of Theatre Bristol, Chinonyerem was born in Nigeria of Igbo heritage and grew up in the UK. Her experience of home is formed by that experience, but also by a sometimes peripatetic existence. My life experiences are similar in some ways; migration, re-invention, sofa surfing in my late teens, and renewal. In these contexts, food, language and the importance of ‘home’ as a refuge matters.
Listen to Chinonyerem Odimba and me in conversation about HOME, on SPOTIFY – or on Libsyn.
You can read a meditation on ‘home’, here.
The podcast series Telling It Like It is takes a look at life today, how we came to be as we are, where we might be going, what shapes that journey, and what we might need to take stock of along the way. The conversation is guided each time by people who have something valuable to bring to the table – a perspective, knowledge, lived experience, and above all a willingness to talk about an idea with intelligence and compassion.
Past episodes have included Professor Corinne Fowler of Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted, and Ian Douglas, author of Is Technology Making Us Sick?
Sanjit Chudha 