Omope Carter Daboiku
West Dayton Stories Community ProducerKnown affectionately as Mama O, Omope Carter Daboiku is a 2012 migrant to the Miami Valley. Originally from Ironton, in southern Ohio, she identifies as an Appalachian of mixed ancestry. Trained as a cultural geographer, Mama O has 30 years of experience as an international performance artist, educator, and published writer. The founder of the local Dunbar Literary Circle, her storytelling is included in Dayton Metro Library’s new Dial-a-Story service, and she’s working with arts education ally, Muse Machine, to produce writing and theater resources for virtual learning.
Since COVID-19, her work on Dayton’s west-side has shifted from academic tutoring to restoring agriculture as an African American heritage craft, supporting access to healthy food, and inspiring cross-town civic engagement through science education and the arts.
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In the premier issue of “West Dayton Stories Zine,” producers of WYSO’s popular series “West Dayton Stories”—including amaha sellasie, Tiffany L. Brown, Omopé Carter Daboiku, Love’Yah Stewart, and Jaylon Yates—briefly introduce themselves and give readers useful tips for everything from photography to fashion to gardening. Readers also can scan QR codes that will take them to archived episodes (some of them longer than those that first aired) from the inaugural season of the series. -
The Edgemont Solar Garden on Miami Chapel Road has a long history on Dayton’s West Side. Lately it’s experienced a regeneration of sorts, with partners like Central State University and Agraria in Yellow Springs joining in to support urban agriculture.
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The Great Miami River and Wolf Creek are natural boundaries that once defined the borders of Dayton’s West Side. The artificial boundaries of I-75 and US 35 further shaped it. But there’s another boundary created by the practice of redlining, the intentional denial of opportunity to residents of an area based on race.
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We’re exploring Black Joy on West Dayton Stories, and this week community producer Omopé Carter-Daboiku, known to many as Mama O, tells of a lifetime of dipping into that deep well of spirit and pride.
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As West Dayton Stories presents thoughts and opinions on the recent election and voting in years past, it seems there’s a generational divide emerging. Omope Carter-Daboiku has exercised her right to cast a ballot over quite a few voting cycles.
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Storyteller and folklorist Omopé Carter Daboiku draws on the deep well of her Appalachian forebears in her professional life, but that heritage has also proven to be a source of solace and inspiration in these tough times.
