Rising Stars: Meet Ifeanyi C. Oshun of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ifeanyi C. Oshun.

Hi Ifeanyi , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve done a lot of things— it’s hard to figure out where you’d like me to focus or begin! I’ve managed to squeeze in many lifetimes of careers in my short time on earth so far 🙂

I’ve been active as a creative since the ripe old age of 8 years old, when I wrote a poem about death, and it was published in the Voice newspaper; I went out to complete my first novella at age 11, I won my 1st fiction contest and got paid for it at 15 and then at 17 years old I went on to compete nationally representing the Pomona Valley chapter after winning 1st place in Poetry in for the NAACP ACT-SO competition which was a “Olympics of the Mind” where 1000s of students competed in various topics like humanities, sciences, mathematics, etc., etc.

By age 25, I went on to publish my first book of poetry called A Girl’s Life which won the Golden Leaves Award Cal Poly Pomona and it landed on the Amazon bestseller list for Poetry in the Top 10 with the late greats Dr. Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni.

And during my time at Cal Poly Pomona, I won 2nd place for my article from the SPJ: Society of Professional Journalists.

After that, I went on to have careers psychiatric nursing, teaching, law-enforcement entertainment/publicity along with starting my own businesses— and amalgam of arts, spirituality. multimedia and real estate.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth road? Absolutely not lol!

I have a deep love for arts AND sciences, which makes me kind of an anomaly amongst my friends who were like either or…

So, I have to say had I chosen a path in sciences, which was open to me because I was actually part of a rigorous program where I was chosen to participate as one of the Top 20 science students in all of America in the YSOSI program-an excellent science program where we got to shadow scientists in our specific areas of scientific interest, enjoying some incredible trips to various facilities like JPL along and live on the university campus and attend collegiate level lectures as young teens— it was definitely an amazing time!

My point is, I feel like had | chosen a career in STEM, I feel like my path would’ve been so much easier because its laid out in a straightforward way: if you wanna be a doctor, you know what is required from you in high school, your university and your expectations during your residency, etc. etc. whereas if you want a career as a creative, the path is very vague and arduous, almost as if it’s meant to frustrate you as a creative.

For instance, tell me what EXACTLY is the straightforward path to becoming say oh well respected hopefully world renowned author, screenwriter, playwright, composer, fine Artist, inventor or actor?

Compared to the world of STEM, becoming a respected creative is a twisty, windy road with a map of outdated directions.

STEM-ers get: crush it in high school, get into an exceptional college, work your butt off and get good grades, be responsible, follow through your residency, graduate and eventually you’ll make X amount of six figures, maybe more. (Although they leave out the massive student loan debt… More on that later lol).

Creatives get: go to school, maybe drop hundreds of thousands of dollar on an art school that doesn’t teach you anything about business (funnily enough) or grab the Writers Market and see if you can
get an agent to “notice” you, or find magazines looking for the kind of niche that you like to write in— query/pitch them, brace yourself for possible rejection, rinse repeat, BUT keep “plugging away” and then MAYBE one day you’ll get it—you’ll get lucky, the cool kids will deem you “worthy” (at least for today lol )and you’ll finally get your of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I’m exaggerating, but see the difference?

Now, I don’t care if people think what I’m about to say is like conspiracy theory-like, you can have your opinions, it doesn’t matter to me- at SOME point all these “coincidences” becomes statistically. impossible!

Now, given whats happening in the world at the moment, I don’t think it’s too far-tetched to see how our societal zeitgeist not only PUSHES stupidity, it REWARDS, stupidity! It DOES want to frustrate independent thinking, it DOES want to frustrate people who think outside the box, who are visionaries with solutions to benefit everyone in the world… Sadly, that’s where were at… I can only hope that the craziness of the world at the moment it’s like an abscess filled of poison ready to burst so we can finally start healing at a deeper level.

So, yes, I feel like my path has been unnecessarily challenging in some aspects AND I don’t think I’m alone in that.

I grew up seeing arts, music, drama, languages, “social studies,” “citizenship” etc. diminished and wiped away from our schools and now we’ve created technology that’s changing the face of creativity, authenticity and ownership at lightning speed, often to the creators detriment.

That’s a thing about art… EVERYONE benefits from it on some level We can’t live in a world without it
yet people rarely want to pay creatives our true compensation. It’s very stingy and very sad.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Since my business is about inspiring and empowering, and I take my customers needs very seriously, I’m currently pivoting my businesses because I feel like change is inevitable— you either go with it or you’ll be broken by it.

My focus is to expand my current brands and reflect the ethos of my company by bringing in more innovative fiction, movies, music, art—not just for people to “consume,” but for people to feel empowered and inspired as they’re “escaping“ what’s happening in the world.

We shouldn’t escape to numb ourselves out… we should “escape “so we can come back to this world now enriched, more focused and more emboldened to change things, individually and collectively.

As I’ve written and said before, our mind garden consists of what we feed it, which is what you read, what news you listen to or DON’T listen to, what music you taken in, who you surround yourself with And I want my company Imaginate 1111 to be the fertilizer for people‘s mind gardens worldwide.

I have many projects going on simultaneously, howeverI’m working on releasing a journal called “Healing Life After Life” for teenagers or adults who are currently running a program, currently incarcerated or have been incarcerated. Given my law-enforcement background, my specialty was helping at risk youth and I created programs to rehabilitate them. This journal is for anybody who has that similar background OR anybody interested in personal shadow work and healing their life to move onto the next level. My book will be available before Father’s Day in late May/early June 2026 on my website.

And I’m also currently working on a dystopian horror Romance script along with a few romance and fantasy novellas; I’ve also released several songs under my artist name iRavenrose which is available anywhere you stream your music except Spotify. Please sign up on my social media and on my website newsletter to stay in touch out with the latest updates! Thank you for your support 🙂

What do you like and dislike about the city?
Well, I’m in the suburbs, so what I LOVE is the peace and quiet and definitely the ability to get from A-to-Z without worrying that too much traffic, crazy parking and just being stressed out on the road constantly Before getting to my destination.

I am a garden girly—I have over 200 plants on my balcony garden, so living and working in the suburbs, being able to see the stars at night and not too far to the beach is important to me for my peace of mind…immersing myself in nature is part of my own spiritual practice.

That said, when I DON’T like is traffic, obviously city grime, seeing land sitting there, unused, and at the same time seeing homeless people not being housed properly or taken care of properly…

I find that really annoying and upsetting because I feel like poverty really should not exist on such an abundant planet… We really have to look at ourselves and our priorities and stop ignoring this system that’s clearly broken. There’s enough for EVERYONE…but Greed is what’s keeping that from happening and IMO TRUE greed is when you have enough for yourself, BUT you don’t want anybody else to prosper.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.imaginate1111.com
• Instagram: Imaginate1111
• Facebook: Imaginate1111
• Twitter: Ifeanyicoshun
• Youtube: Imaginate1111

Image Credits
Ifeanyi C. Oshun