.Biography
A daughter of Nigerian and Caribbean parents, Olushola A. Cole was born in the United Kingdom. Cole's work is infused with multidisciplinary materials and methods, bridging the world of theater, place making and visual art. Her body of work Jenny.Was.A.Pirate.Hater uses performance while integrating the use of movement, photography, sound, video, drawing and installation. These mediums, along with the emergence of her alter ego Pirate Jenny, explore sexual identity, cultural assimilation, social justice as well as trauma such as PTSD, bullying, abuse, rape and motherloss. Pirate Jenny, or PJ - embodies both Cole's life experiences as a British born Afro-Caribbean Queer Immigrant in the USA as well as her historical interest in pirates and slave interactions focused in the British Colonies.
Cole's work centers around her newest works in progress, The Biographie of Service, The Tales of Pirate Jenny and #PirateRadio. These works explore the airwaves within concepts of piracy, identity, territory and servitude while drawing historical and current parallels of communities within oppression. Ongoing collaborations and experiments include "Variations on a 2 or 3 ply wipe to the Tune of Freedom....?" with James "Ari" Montford using current re-stagings and interpretations of past work exploring being Black and Other in the 21st Century. 'Service is Cool' studies themes of "otherness", service and social practice within street performance.
Classical training in piano, trombone, movement and voice has laid strong foundations for debut performances at Carnegie Hall with Bobby McFerrin in his 'Instant Opera' Concert (2008), The Hip Hop Continuum with Rennie Harris at Jacobs Pillow's Cultural Traditions Dance Program (2009) and the off-Broadway hit STOMP. Storytelling immersions with Master Storyteller Donald Davis continue to influence not only how Cole tells the story, but moreover how she listens to various narratives in daily life. The 2017 performance intensive Time.Space.Nothing with artist Franko B has opened Cole's senses to the collapse of time and the unique commitment to ones performance practice with the use of task, dedication and self inquiry. Embodied inquiry into yoga, Acroyoga, physical theater, Gaga, Alexander Technique, contact improvisation, ballet and modern dance underwrite Cole's belief in a community's ability to positively change their environment through expressive movement. Studies and hands on research of social rebellion and forays into social movements such as house dance, samba, West African dance, hip-hop, tango and capoeira - have propelled Cole to always seek the relationships between oppressive environments and the artistic, coded response of oppressed groups in the underground.
Cole graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of General Studies, minoring in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. She facilitates her own Body Vocality! Improv Workshops © for vocal and percussive exploration and also time travel. Cole enjoys travel, low-to-no-social media, art, food, style and language and boasts an endless mouthful of critique for the world she navigates. She draws added strength from the outspoken and gender bending legacy of Nina Simone; the interdisciplinary philosophies of artist Bruce Lee and the playfully uncompromising spirit and musicianship of Lhasa de Sala*. Cole continues her performance practice as an alumni of Emerge NYC at NYU's Hemispheric Institute. She is a graduate/die-hard fanboi of Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Cole's work centers around her newest works in progress, The Biographie of Service, The Tales of Pirate Jenny and #PirateRadio. These works explore the airwaves within concepts of piracy, identity, territory and servitude while drawing historical and current parallels of communities within oppression. Ongoing collaborations and experiments include "Variations on a 2 or 3 ply wipe to the Tune of Freedom....?" with James "Ari" Montford using current re-stagings and interpretations of past work exploring being Black and Other in the 21st Century. 'Service is Cool' studies themes of "otherness", service and social practice within street performance.
Classical training in piano, trombone, movement and voice has laid strong foundations for debut performances at Carnegie Hall with Bobby McFerrin in his 'Instant Opera' Concert (2008), The Hip Hop Continuum with Rennie Harris at Jacobs Pillow's Cultural Traditions Dance Program (2009) and the off-Broadway hit STOMP. Storytelling immersions with Master Storyteller Donald Davis continue to influence not only how Cole tells the story, but moreover how she listens to various narratives in daily life. The 2017 performance intensive Time.Space.Nothing with artist Franko B has opened Cole's senses to the collapse of time and the unique commitment to ones performance practice with the use of task, dedication and self inquiry. Embodied inquiry into yoga, Acroyoga, physical theater, Gaga, Alexander Technique, contact improvisation, ballet and modern dance underwrite Cole's belief in a community's ability to positively change their environment through expressive movement. Studies and hands on research of social rebellion and forays into social movements such as house dance, samba, West African dance, hip-hop, tango and capoeira - have propelled Cole to always seek the relationships between oppressive environments and the artistic, coded response of oppressed groups in the underground.
Cole graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of General Studies, minoring in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. She facilitates her own Body Vocality! Improv Workshops © for vocal and percussive exploration and also time travel. Cole enjoys travel, low-to-no-social media, art, food, style and language and boasts an endless mouthful of critique for the world she navigates. She draws added strength from the outspoken and gender bending legacy of Nina Simone; the interdisciplinary philosophies of artist Bruce Lee and the playfully uncompromising spirit and musicianship of Lhasa de Sala*. Cole continues her performance practice as an alumni of Emerge NYC at NYU's Hemispheric Institute. She is a graduate/die-hard fanboi of Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
*other key sources of strength include artists Bjork, D'Angelo, Jill Scott and the tender, yet tumultuous fluidity of Storm aka Aurora Munroe (X-men), Peter Pan and Chicken Little
© 2013 - 2017 All Rights Reserved OluShola A. Cole
© 2013 - 2017 All Rights Reserved OluShola A. Cole
