In this episode of Odejuma, Harry chats with Will Rhem Jr., a dancer, choreographer, poet, and teacher raised in the Gullah Geechee culture of South Carolina. Will has danced on Broadway and taught at Columbia, but this conversation lives somewhere quieter. He talks about tending the self like a garden, the parts of him left untended that kept growing anyway, and the childhood he had to walk back through to write his poetry collection, ‘Abandoned Gardens Still Grow.’ He reflects on Gullah Geechee identity, truth-telling as his first calling, and turning healing into a short film called ‘Bloom.’ It is an unhurried conversation about resilience, self-love, and what it means to grow in the dark. He closes the episode with a reading of one of his poems, and it is worth hearing in his own voice and will definitely leave you with something to sit with.

Connect with Will on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willrhemjr/

Buy his book here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/abandoned-gardens-still-grow-will-rhem-jr/1147522239

Connect with Harry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harryitie

For more information on Harry, visit: https://www.harryitie.com/

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