Raphael Olympio

Raphael Olympio, aka Olympio, is an immensely talented rapper and spoken word artist from Cork who was born in Togo, West Africa. He grew up in a Direct Provision Centre and feels inspired to motivate others who come from different parts of Africa and other countries across the world - and is a youth mentor with the Cork Migrant Centre. 

Olympio has performed at UBUNTU: Local is Global (a CIPHER Hip Hop Interpellation) featured on RTE's Change Makers, and he’s been part of numerous collaborations and performances at  Indiependence, Electric Picnic, Other Voices, and more. 

He's released several spoken word/hip hop music videos - and the latest one called EPG (Exploitation, Power Greed) is absolutely brilliant, go and check it out.

He wrote a beautiful piece especially for this episode and we talk about social and racial anxiety, the richness of Africa, his creative process, and how his work as a mentor inspires and motivates him.

The creative work he does with the young people in the Cork Migrant Centre is something we look at more in the next episode - when I meet the young people at his workshop.

Thanks so much to Raphael Olympio for all the great - and valuable - work he’s doing  - and thanks to the Arts Council for their support.