Kunle Adewale at 40: A Celebration Focused on Children and Community

Yinka Olatunbosun

In honour of the Children’s Day celebration, it is inevitable to celebrate an artist who had contributed to the lives of children and the community at large. Since the beginning of the year, the countdown to the 40th birthday of the Arts in Medicine advocate and artist, Kunle Adewale has been a rollercoaster of charitable causes. He had been involved in community outreach projects that targeted the vulnerable, marginalized, the sick, the disabled and other community members in partnership with organizations, art groups as well as support from friends in Nigeria and abroad.

Adewale walked the streets, literally distributing copies of his inspirational memoir titled “Atunbi: The Grit, The Gut and The Glory.’’ He went as far as dump sites, in search of young boys whose lives could be touched by his life story. He didn’t spare the street sweepers; many posed with copies of his book. Rather than throw a lavish party to mark the milestone age, he celebrated humanity.

“Clocking 40 is not a small feat,’’ he began during an electronic interview with THISDAY. “Being alive especially during the COVID-19 era is a big deal. Being a community and charity minded person, my desire is to see that more people have access to therapeutic art engagements and opportunities that can improve their quality of life and health outcomes.’’

Against all odds, he was determined to take ‘Atunbi’ to correctional facilities in Lagos. Well, he could have chosen a few of them that were accessible but he insisted on reaching Kirikiri Maximum Prison, defying the perennial traffic inwards Apapa axis, facing the dangers of riding commercial motorcycles.

“I visited Nigerian Correctional facilities make to donations of over 40 autographed copies of my memoir to correctional officers and inmates at Ikoyi and Kirikiri Maximum Prisons. The goal was to inspire public servants and empower inmates through my lived experience. Books are powerful and they have the potential of transforming the minds of people who are in dark moments in the lives. My visit to these facilities was well received and has birthed conversation on facilitating more therapeutic arts for inmates in Ikoyi and Kirikiri Prison. Over the years, I have facilitated art programs and co-anchor art therapy for inmates in Abuja and Benue State by working with the United States Art Envoy to Nigeria through the US Embassy Abuja,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, during his visit to the Special Correctional Center for Boys, Oregun Ikeja, he reached out to children as well as adolescents. There, a book reading session was organised with over 100 boys at the facility. For someone who had such as eventful childhood like his, that encounter was a very emotional one.

“There were moments my eyes were teary seeing the hope in the eyes of these young ones who were inspired by my story telling session and life experience of being raised in an environment filled crime and yet becoming a light bearer and pacesetter in Nigeria and around the world. The audacity of hope for juvenile was something that brought me joy. I believe life should be lived to help others find the right paths through our lights,’’ he recounted.

Autographed copies of ‘Atunbi’ were given to the boys and donated to the Correctional Center Library. There are plans to hold art therapy sessions for the boys to replicate the type that was carried out at the Correctional center for Girls at Idi-Araba some years ago.

Another landmark project he had undertaken is the ‘Art Kits for Kids and Teens’ on hospital admission during the pandemic.

“With help from the Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria and friends, we have donated over 60 art kits to children and teens on hospital admission. I believe that these art kits would go a long way to help the patients to cope with anxiety, hospital stress and speed up their recovery. My hope is that the children, teens and their parents would use these art kits as form of therapy while undergoing treatment in the hospital. I hope that those kits would help them to discover their talents and enhance their creative skills,’’ he said.

Adewale’s initiative had led to several art kits donation and bedside art sessions at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Massey Children Hospital, Lagos Island and the Gbagada General Hospital.

Other children who had benefited from his charitable cause include child-amputees, persons with disabilities and children on hospital admission. The beneficiary organizations include Irede Foundation, Down Syndrome Foundation, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Center, Lagos amongst others.