Eseohe Arhebamen or Eseohe Arhebamen-Yamasaki, also known as Edoheart (born Obehioye Eseohe Ikhianose Oghomwenyenmwen Cleopatra Anne Arhebamen), is a poet, dancer, singer, musician, producer, performance artist and visual artist. Eseohe was born in

Zaria Zaria is a metropolitan city in Nigeria which at the present time lies within four (4) local government areas in Kaduna state; it happens to be the capital city to the Zazzau Emirate Council, and one of the original seven Hausa city-states ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and is descended from a royal family of the

Benin Empire The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, or the Benin Empire ( Bini: ') was a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th c ...

. Eseohe Arhebamen's maternal grandmother is Princess Theresa Maria Nodumwenben Osazuwa, a princess of the

Edo people The Edo or Benin people are an Edoid ethnic group primarily found in Edo State, Southern part of Nigeria. They speak the Edo language and are the descendants of the founders of the Benin Empire. They are closely related to other ethnic group ...

. Eseohe Arhebamen's great-grandfather Osazuwa Eredia, the father of Princess Theresa Osazuwa, was the Oba N’Ugu and Enogie of Umoghumwun, making Eseohe Arhebamen a royal descendant and princess. "The foundation of the kingdom of Ugu, with its capital at Umoghumwun has been traced to Prince Idu, the eldest son of Oba Eweka I."

Early life

Eseohe Arhebamen is the oldest of five siblings and frequently played a parental role in their upbringing. At the age of seven Eseohe's family migrated to the United States and settled in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. At age 17 she enrolled in the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

at the Residential College. Although strongly encouraged to pursue medicine as a career path, Eseohe instead followed her passion for poetry, language and the arts. As an undergraduate student Eseohe focused on literary means and performance as a way to affect social change. While at the University of Michigan, Eseohe won prestigious awards for her writing and is included in a University of Michigan Anthology of Hopwood Award winners.

Career

At 19 years old, Eseohe earned a position as Writer-in-Residence with

InsideOut Literary Arts InsideOut Literary Arts (InsideOut) is a 501(c)(3) literary nonprofit organization based in Detroit, Michigan, that uses creative writing and poetry programs to build students' literary and academic skills. InsideOut provides opportunities for ...

and worked with children in impoverished inner-city schools to expand their literary skills. After moving to New York in 2003, Eseohe founded the company EdoHeart also written as Edoheart which became her performance name. Eseohe Arhebamen is synonymous with Edoheart. Eseohe received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from the

in Creative Writing and Literature in August, 2005, and went on to receive another Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art with a minor in English from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

. She further graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

with a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

Performance Studies Performance studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses performance as a lens and a tool to study the world. The term ''performance'' is broad, and can include artistic and aesthetic performances like concerts, theatrical events, ...

, which is described as drawing from a study of the performing arts, anthropology and sociology, literary theory, and legal studies. Eseohe also intensively studied

Butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders ...

dance with Yukio Waguri. Areas of interest in Eseohe Arhebamen's experimental work are imaginative creation of alternate environments, and

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and vocal expressions as a source for movement. She has choreographed and taught or led workshops involving these areas of interest at

The Living Theatre The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Teacher's College. Eseohe Arhebamen has appeared on Korean and American television and news, and in American, Estonian and Latvian newspapers. In 2011, she was chosen by artist

Kalup Linzy Kalup Linzy (born July 23, 1977) is an American video and performance artist who currently lives and works in Tulsa, OK. His performance are characterized by their low-tech quality, themes of community, socializing, family, the church, sexuality a ...

to appear in a documentary about New York artists. Eseohe Arhebamen also appears in a video tape included in acclaimed poet

Anne Waldman Anne Waldman (born April 2, 1945) is an American poet. Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the Outrider experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activ ...

's papers purchased by the

Special Collections Library.

Butoh vocal theatre

Eseohe Arhebamen is the first

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

and native-born African

butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders ...

performer. In addition, Eseohe Arhebamen is the first performer to combine butoh dance with singing, talking,

mudra A mudra (; sa, मुद्रा, , "seal", "mark", or "gesture"; ,) is a symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. As wel ...

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

, and experimental vocalizations after the traditional dance styles of the

of West

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. She refers to this dance style as Butoh-Vocal Theatre. Eseohe Arhebamen's Butoh-Vocal Theatre style arises out of her work in

, music and the traditional Edo theater in which performers dance and sing simultaneously, and is influenced by her expressed belief in a common lingual history between the Edo people of Nigeria and the Japanese. On 26 September 2010 Eseohe gave a performance at a Yukio Waguri intensive workshop demonstrating her style of Butoh-Vocal Theatre during which she danced butoh while singing

Pure Imagination "Pure Imagination" is a song from the 1971 film ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory''. It was written by British composers Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie. It was sung by Gene Wilder who played the character of ...

from

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' by Roald Dahl. The film ...

. Eseohe's notable performance during the Fifth Diverse Universe tour was described by Kaarel Kressa as embodying natural elegance and femininity; with poetry, dance and song that won the hearts of the audience. Eseohe's performances have also been called "powerful ritual".

Marriage

In 2006, Eseohe married long time sweetheart Seth Yamasaki, son of Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Taro Yamasaki, and grandson of

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward D ...

, Japanese-American architect best known for designing the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

. The two live in Brooklyn,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Poetry books

* 2010: Poems 1998-2009 (Laughing Mouse Press) * 2003: Seeding the Clouds (Ornithology Press)

Discography

* 2019: Okada 8000 (Edoheart & Nick Hook) * 2019: 1H (Edoheart) * 2018: Raw Cash Remix (Edoheart) * 2018: Na Fiya Ft. Masterkraft (Edoheart) * 2017: Majokko Olokun (Edoheart) * 2013: Edoheart – Sosomoneycockplease EP (Akwaaba Music) * 2012: Get As E Be - EP (Edoheart) * 2010: Shchedryk Avant Remix (Clinical Archives) * 2010: Monsoon in Ibadan (Clinical Archives) * 2010: Wa Domo Edo (Edoheart) * 2009: The Hunger Artist (Eseohe)

Film and video

"I'm That African" (2019)

"Raw Cash Remix" (2018)

"I No Send" (2018)

"Na Fiya Ft. Masterkraft" (2018)

"Sugar In A Plum" (2012)

"Fire Butoh 4!" (2011)

"Sometimes (Take me away)" (2011)

"Sosomoneycockplease (Video edit)" (2010)

"Excerpt of Fire Butoh 3 for the Low Lives Exhibition" (2010)

"Blue Butterfly Butoh" (2009)

"The Cement Factory" (2009)

"#18 / Number 18" (2009)

"eAir Butoh Sketch" (2009)

"Fire Butoh 3 Visuals" (2008)

"Fire Butoh 3" (2008)

"Es Su Casa" (2008)

"Fire Butoh 1" (2007)
* The N Word (2007)

Anthologies and catalogues

* 2009: Diverse Universe Festival 2005–2009, Academia Gustaviana Selts Mty * 2009: Low Lives, Jorge Rojas * 2009: Kunsti Aastaraamat, Parnu Linnavalitsuse kultuuriosakond (Cultural Department of Parnu City Government), Printon Printing House * 2009: 세계 실험예술의 메카, 홍대 앞 - 인터넷서점 인터파크도서 * 2006: The Hopwood Awards: 75 Years of Prized Writing, University of Michigan Press * 2006: The New Spend Less Revolution, Harriman House

Awards

* 2012: Tisch School of the Arts Department Sponsored Tuition Award, New York University * 2006: Poet of the Day, Poets Against the War * 2002: Environmental Justice Initiative First Place Award, University of Michigan * 2002:

College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational The College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) is an annual Poetry Slam tournament put on by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI) in which teams of four or five college students from different colleges and universities compete ...

National Champion First Place, University of Michigan Team * 2000: Writer-in-Residence, InsideOut Literary/Arts Project * 2000: Arthur Miller Award (Fiction) * 2000: Jeffrey L. Weisberg Memorial Prize in Poetry * 2000: Hopwood Minor Poetry Award * 2000: Hopwood Underclassmen Fiction Award * 1998: Residential College Fellowship, University of Michigan

References

External links

Official Homepage

Edoheart - Teaching: Classes & Workshops

Edoheart Official links
{{authority control Living people 1981 births Nigerian women poets 21st-century Nigerian women singers Musicians from Edo State University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Butoh Nigerian artists People from Zaria Edo people 21st-century Nigerian poets 21st-century Nigerian women writers