“For me it’s about creating a platform not only for myself but where I can lift up and bring other people with me and it’s a daily thing as far as being open. I always want to give more.”-Abiola Abrams

 

Paper Magazine in New York City named her one of the top 50 most beautiful people of 2008 simply because Bevy Smith from Access Hollywood stated, ‘you need to know about this girl.” Abiola Abrams carries creativity in the palm of her hands. Her energy is endless as she juggles the life of a TV Personality on BETJ, a Filmmaker, and writer. She is an artist by all means with a vision that entails educating, entertaining, and empowering females. Welcome to Planet Abiola let’s indulge!

Her vision pushes envelopes and reveals stories that aren’t seen or heard too often whether on screen or through books. A soul full of determination, she works hard at seeing that her vision is met. As a storyteller, she admits to being frustrated at times because if she were to succumb to what’s expected and what people want, it would be so much easier. “But at the end of the day I have a vision and I have a purpose for being here and for me it’s about empowering women and girls and I stay true to that as best I can.”

Discovering her voice by keeping a journal opened roads to exploring how she would eventually tell her stories. “The beautiful thing is with a journal every thought is between you and the paper. So there’s honesty and it’s a good way to develop your style.”

“Hip Hop for me is a culture not a music style, and is the first window through which I found an opening to belong,” she writes in her Artist’s statement.

Abiola is a Hip Hop artist. No, you won’t see her on stage rockin’ the mic like a Lil’ Kim or Foxy Brown, but through her literature, career as a media personality, and films the essence of the culture is felt.

“As a performer auditioning becomes a way of life, or as a creative person, as a writer, you’re always trying to sell yourself and your work and so it becomes your mindset.”

The intent was to be interviewed about a film she’d done. What happened was the audition that turned her into a TV personality with the responsibility to interview celebrities and also host various shows on BET Js’ "The Best Shorts." What grew from there was the creation of "The Planet Abiola Show.” Planet Abiola is a fun, inspirational, and scandalous show aired on TV One’s Blackplanet TV channel. Abiola is the host as well as the executive producer of the energetic show. You can catch the hottest in news, celebrity interviews, and all the questions you want to know but are scared to ask. “[What’s] really cool is that I’ve gotten to interview celebrities and people I grew up idolizing and listening to their music.”

While attending art schools, Abiola was able to be in the company of creative people as herself. The walls surrounding her were encouraging and open to all forms of art. She was on the grounds of progressive experimentation and loved every bit of it. ‘The pivotal point for me in discovering my creativity was going to art schools. Rather than being in a traditional college, being in schools that were more experimental and being in the company of other artist allowed me to push my work a little bit further outside of the safe boundaries.”

However, as we know, where there is an artistic vision, artistic conflicts approach. While working on an experimental documentary, Knives in My Throat, which dealt with a woman battling suicidal tendencies, disappointment struck and left Abiola in a position to make things happen by any means necessary.

“When I finished the film, I had a person at a major network say to me, Abiola this is a wonderful film, very well done, but I can’t air this because people don’t care—who cares about a black girl story.”

Abiola was devastated. It was the defining moment where she really took something to heart. “I put so much time, money, and my heart and soul into this film,” she states almost as if air was escaping her lungs as the words rolled off her tongue. Her voice still in disbelief of the reason her work was refused. Regardless of what the major networks had to say, nothing was going to detour Abiola from sharing this story. She made a way for herself.

“Wonderful thing now, she begins with a smile coming through her voice, “is that being able to create my own avenues of distribution, I’ve now figured out a way to get it directly to the audience without the middleman.”

Staying true and believing in her project led to winning the “Best Experimental Film for African American Women” at the Real Sister Film Festival.

She began writing theatre drawn from the inspiration of Ntozake Shange’s chore poem, For Colored Girls who considered suicide when the rainbow wasn’t enuff. A lot of her work was a mix between for colored girls and Hip Hop." It was like me telling my stories in the way that I have learned to through the chore poem idea but with the foundation of Hip Hop. So I was writing from my experience.”

She explains, “theatre is kind of a natural graduation into film,” which later translated into the notion of wanting to write a novel. In comes the Author.

Her contribution as an artist with the gift of writing, is the novel, DARE, dealing with a female character, Maya, whom thinks she’s looking for love but is really looking for self. Maya is caught in between two guys, each representing different sides of Hip Hop.

With DARE, an intelligent Hip Hop story is introduced—something that is rare when we think in terms of a Hip Hop novel. “They [people] assume if something is a Hip Hop novel, it’s going to be street fiction and they don’t assume it can be this beautiful love story that’s all about Hip Hop but at the same time has nothing to do with Hip Hop.”

At the time of creation, Abiola was feeling some harshness in terms of love. "I came to a place where I felt I loved Hip Hop but Hip Hop no longer loved me.” DARE is a reflection of where her personal life was at the time—hence the ability to write from experience.

Not one to hold her tongue, Abiola is raw when it comes to topics of sexuality and being open with who you are. "In terms of me being able to develop my voice just comes from me being confident with myself and being in love with myself and really saying okay “this is who I am” and as a writer, for any artist having and knowing your voice is about the way you approach your life and when you’re more authentically you in your life then you’re able to have your voice shine through in your art."

“Abiola’s Philosophy: Date promiscuously and have sex monogamously”

Identifying herself as a very sexually open person, while working on a collaborative venture, ‘Dirty Words: The Encyclopedia of Sex”, Abiola introduces “The Celibate Slut.’ Laughing she explains the idea, “what I mean by that is I feel like whatever consenting adults want to do for safety in privacy is up to them but for me I’m a very conservative person, my body is sacred and so I’m very selective about who and what I allow in, around, and near my body. I really wanted to write this piece that connected with single women being on the dating scene.”

As a media personality, Abiola is free-spirited, fun, edgy and in control. As a writer, her voice reigns heavy with the ability to collect inspiration from various places and weave them together to tell stories some may be afraid to. As a filmmaker, her vision is passionate. As an artist, she is one that can entertain you with
sass, educate you through her literature and film, and empower you by her actions. The message is ultimately to love who you are authentically and never allow anyone to shut you down or shut you up.

There’s this term called passion that sinks into your skin and provides a drive that enables you to go for whatever your heart desires. After a while, it becomes an itch that just refuses to let you go. For Abiola, that itch is relieved when pen meets paper, fingers connect with keyboard and execute on to the computer screen. “I remember growing up she [mother] wrote us a sequel to the 3 bears, some story just because I asked what happens now mommy? I think that gave me the freedom to be a creative person myself.” As a child she always wanted to know what happened next when a story reached its ending.

Planet Abiola is a wild ride at a rapid pace. One may look at Abiola’s life and say that she does so many different things, she simply views it as," I’m doing all the same things just in different ways."

Be sure to check her website and blog spot, www.thegoddessfactory.com which invites you into the world of a woman that knows the power of words and expression—she holds nothing back and for damn sure is comfortable with herself!