the only way is thr(u) motherworld
Come celebrate the album release of ọmọlolú's the only way is thr(u) and the the third birthday of Destiny Hemphill's debut poetry collection motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life.
RSVPs are not required for admission to the event, but do help with capacity.
Copies of motherworld will be available for purchase, and there will be an opportunity to donate at the door to cover cost of venue and traveling expenses.
About ọmọlolú + the only way is thr(u)
ọmọlolú Refilwe Bàbátúndé (she/they) is a multimedia artist rooted in sound who makes sonic ritual works that explore recovery, becoming, and breaking into affirming possibilities. Her practice is concerned with how Black sound moves through, connects, and shifts space/time. Through looping, harmonization, instrumentation, field recordings, and sampling, they explore the power of repetition, mantra-making, and collective breathing as ways to propel those who listen through the cycles and deepening of our becoming. In their practice, they also explore video, image, archival work, prose, and performance as ways to activate, visualize, and embody the sonic encounters they strive to expose. She released her debut album the only way is thr(u) on March 13, 2026.
the only way is thr(u) lights a candle to the courage it takes to make oneself k(new). The album is filled with lush harmony, field recordings, lulling guitar, samples, rhythmic breaks and mantra informed prose that tap into a tensed relationality of being: I/we have existed, I/we exist, I/we will continue to exist holding the presence of ancestors, and the breath that flows within us now, as proof of Black queer coming afters. The record is a soothing balm in rupturing times, attuning one to the depths of their unique possibility.
About Destiny Hemphill + motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life
Destiny Hemphill is a chronically ill ritual worker and poet, living on the unceded territory of the Eno-Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation (Durham, NC). She is a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow and has received other fellowships for her poetry from Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, Callaloo, Tin House, Kenyon Review's Writers Workshop, and Torch Literary. She is a co-editor for Poetry as Spellcasting (North Atlantic Books 2023) and the author of the poetry collection motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life (Action Books, 2023), which was a finalist for the National Poetry Series Award, Lambda Literary Award, and Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Prize. Her work has also been featured in Poetry Magazine, Southern Cultures, and the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series. She served as an inaugural Poetry Coalition Fellow, a Kenan Visiting Writer in Poetry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and an inaugural Tin House Reading Fellow.
motherworld: a devotional for the alter-life is Hemphill's debut poetry collection. Both presentist and futurist, it holds the possibility of apocalypse as not the end of the world but only a world, one that is built by colonization and capitalism. Following an unnamed Black collective building a new world through rituals of care, the poems summon a world-to-come as already accessible within the now, even if only in glimmers.
About the Space
There is free street parking surrounding the building and limited ADA-accessible parking onsite. You can use the community lot on Geer Street, about half a block away. We also share use of a small overflow lot on North Street. The space strives to maintain ADA accessibility in all public spaces and has an entrance with ramp-access. Attendees are asked to wear masks at this event.