WRITERS and spoken word poets don’t drop from the sky.

Quite often you’ll find them working into the wee small hours, fine-tuning their craft for years before any kind of success appears on the horizon.

In Lavie Olupona’s case, her writing journey has taken her to the steps of the Dáil where she performed on International Women’s Day. 

The 20-year-old from Clonakilty toyed with the idea of being a paramedic or a journalist.

At the same time, writing was something she always did.

But let’s start from the beginning…

As a child Lavie was writing whenever she could.

She recalled keeping a book of fairy tales from when she was about four, which her mother had read aloud to her for bedtime.

Its pages held Lavie’s drawings and early attempts to write her own versions of her favourite stories, often putting herself among the characters. 

“My most vivid memory of writing was when I was 11 and I came to the final of a writing competition, but didn’t win it. The rejection felt like the end of the world at the time but I kept writing anyway. I didn’t share my poems with anyone until I was about 14.”

Lavie described her mother Mary Olupona-Foley as a big inspiration, an extraordinary poet and creative thinker. “You could give her two words and ten minutes, and she’d have a poem,” she said.

Her mother brought the same imagination to everyday moments, sparkling with ideas during Lavie’s school art projects.

She also encouraged her and her five siblings to think outside the box, plan ahead and return to her work when she felt ready. 

She said her mother had a spirit unlike anyone she’s met.

She passed away earlier this year, but Lavie said she had given her much love and useful advice for the future.

She said Mary’s stories of life in a family of Travellers once sounded like fairy tales.

But being mentored during the Wheel of Dreams film project at 14 helped her better understand their reality.

The project was set up by the Stronger Together Collective and supporter by West Cork Traveller Centre, and also shot on location around the region, including Bantry, Clonakilty and at An Sanctóir near Ballydehob. 

She said: “I don’t think I would have gone the way I did without it and it really opened my eyes to what was possible.”

Growing up biracial, when she was younger she had struggled to feel fully Irish or Nigerian, while also exploring her Traveller identity.

Her mother taught her that those cultures could coexist and instilled the importance of kindness.

Lavie said her mother’s pride had helped her grow into a confident, assured sense of self and of her roots and strong connection with Clonakilty.

“Clonakilty is my hometown and I have deep roots here. Whenever I think of Clonakilty I think it’s my space, my place where all my family are from - my nana as well and her mother. Whenever I come down the street, I always see someone I know and vice versa. Everyone’s so friendly and it’s where I feel most myself.”

While attending Clonakilty Community College, she joined the Irish-language debating team, Gael Linn, and was named Student of the Year. She kept writing poetry privately and advocated for girls at the school as part of a group called The Female Lead.

Her involvement with Wheel of Dreams also opened her eyes to the medium of spoken word poetry and from then on, it became her outlet.

“That just opened a pathway to me how poetry can be expressed in modern terms. When people mention poetry you’re just thinking of English class where you have to do Romeo and Juliet, where you have to do Sylvia Plath. I’m not saying I don’t love those but a lot of people think of it that way. For me spoken word poetry was a gateway.”

She also discovered a spoken word circle right on her doorstep. After an invite from writer Paddy Doyle, she has performed two gigs at Creative Bandon. “Creative Bandon has an amazing crowd and beautiful energy,” she said.

Growing up, she felt that speaking it could bring shame and pressure to be perfect, but learning about its history and culture helped her value the efforts to keep it alive.

She points out a similar experience in the Traveller community, where people have also faced shame about sharing their traditions and culture.

“My themes come to me when I’m sitting on the bus or out on a walk. I could even be in the shop and I see flowers and I have to write about those.”

She said there are times when she’ll be writing poems at 2am and think ‘This is Shakespeare’. “And then I read them two days later and I’m like ‘What was that?’ It’s definitely a process.” 

A pivotal moment for her was speaking at the Dáil on International Women’s Day through Wheel of Dreams.

Invited to Dublin by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, she described the day as a whirlwind of emotions and “almost like a fever dream”. 

The experience boosted Lavie’s confidence and helped open doors.

She has published her work in anthologies such as Kin, which also inludes a poem from her mother, and in literary zines.

In 2024 she received the Edna O’Brien Young Writers Award.

The awards, she said, reassure her that “my work has value” and that she deserves to progress as a writer.

Now in her third year studying Social Sciences at UCC, Lavie also co-hosts the English-Irish radio show Na Cailíní with writer Sarah Thompson O’Sullivan.

The programme grew from Bláithe, a literary zine they created to showcase emerging writers, with both currently on pause.

Her influences include Jackie Wilson, Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Edna O’Brien and Sally Rooney.

Maya Angelou’s writing about being othered resonates with her, she says,  and she is also interested in African mythology and its links to Western mythology. 

But for now, she is focused on her studies and writing her dissertation on policy.

Wheel of Dreams was conceived and developed by West Cork artist and filmmaker Toma McCullim as a participatory arts project with nine young Traveller women. McCullim brought the group together, established the Stronger Together Collective and facilitated filmmaking, professional mentorship and opportunities for the young women to share their work publicly, including at Dáil Éireann. The project was supported through the West Cork Traveller Centre, with funding from Community Foundation Ireland and an anonymous community donor.

You can follow Lavie Olupona on Instagram @scriobh.si