Growing up, the Osuobeni siblings remember listening to Martin Luther King Jr. speeches instead of Top 40 radio during their car rides to and from school.
“He was a leader,” says Tony, the father of the family. “All three of my children, I’ve discovered, possess the gift of leadership. Whatever they become, they will be leaders.”
Tarela, Taribo and Tarike Osuobeni are all award-winning poetry performers.
Throughout their collective time at Westerville Central High School, all three have received accolades for poetry recitation, including Tarela’s 2011 win at the Columbus Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Contest and Tarike’s 2014 victory at the high school’s Poetry Out Loud competition.
The highest honor achieved thus far is Taribo’s fourth-place finish in his region for the national Poetry Out Loud competition.
“At the end of it all, there was a winner, but there was a span of four hours where all the kids from different states got together in one room,” he says. “We were pulling poems from the heart. We were slamming and telling stories. In that setting, everyone was vulnerable. That was my proudest moment.”
The raw emotion of delivering poetry is a feeling all three siblings embrace.
“When you have words that speak into something you truly believe, it becomes a part of you,” Tarela says. “When I’m on stage, they’re listening and, if I have something to say, I’m going to say it with everything I have.”
In the fall, Tarela will be a junior at Duke University, where she is pursuing a double major in
Chinese and political science with a focus on international relations. Her academic interests have played a role in her writings. This is showcased in her original piece “The Third Man.”
“I began to see that everything is Eurocentric and the world is seen through American and European perspectives – that’s problematic,” she says. “What about the holistic picture of the world and the Third World countries? Why are they always put in a certain light of being oppressed or at the bottom?”
That conviction and motivation for proactive and positive change is a trait passed down from their father. Thanks to his experience as a pastor, lawyer, historian and motivational speaker, words are Tony’s craft.
“I’ve always loved words and construction, along with good diction and delivery,” he says. “Words can change people, especially at the lowest point in their lives. You can lift up or destroy. The power of life and death is in the tongue. What you say to people can go a long way.”
A key to strong reception and impact of those words is being able to analyze the listeners. Taribo has found a way to combine great historic conviction and pride with the quirkiness of modern-day humor.
In his poem “Rise,” he brings together the sentiment of worn-out, praying knees and the simplicity of a date to Chipotle.
“With reading poetry, you have to know your audience,” Taribo says. “We live in a generation that caters to a certain sound. I know I can’t go up there and throw around vocabulary or concepts. Being playful and having fun is key. If it makes me laugh, I can make them laugh.”
Taribo is a neuroscience student at The Ohio State University. He continues to take poetry classes to better understand the art.
“If you’re well-read, you’re well-spoken,” he says. “I want to learn the history behind the greats and the cultures. There are academic and culture lines, and they need to be blurred.”
The two oldest siblings continue writing and reciting poetry on their respective college campuses.
Tarela looks to maintain her writing talents and perform at shows in North Carolina while Taribo actively works with two close friends to create a message worth spreading to the world.
“We don’t have definite plans, but we’ve come to the conclusion that there are certain things people won’t say anymore,” he says. “Whatever platform you have, you should say something. We have something to say. Whatever plan God has for us, we don’t know, but we want to say something. It’s only a matter of time. Our generation – we need to wake up.”
The youngest, Tarike, works to enhance a skill she didn’t know she possessed and hopes to place at the top of the state level of the Poetry Out Loud competition next year.
“They’ve both done the competition, and I told myself I wasn’t going to do it and live in their light, but we had a class competition where we picked poems to recite,” she says. “I practiced and did very well. I tried out for Poetry Out Loud and ended up winning at my school. Along the way, it gave me a connection to myself I didn’t know was there.”
That connection to words and the ability to deliver with such certitude isn’t a talent that was developed, but one that was inherent in each member of the family, Taribo says.
“I do think what we all have is a gift,” he says. “For me, it’s not something I could will myself to do. I’m still trying to figure it all out, but I believe it comes from God.”
And while diction and a vast vocabulary seem to come naturally to the three, the ability to speak strongly and with heart is something each holds within, Tarela says.
“(Taribo) used to stammer from ages 1 to 13, and my sister and I, we’re not outspoken,” she says. “But we’ve seen what our words can do when we do speak. Anyone can do this. It’s not about having a gift, it’s about the power you believe your words can have.”
Stephan Reed is an editorial associate. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
