Meet Eniafe Isis Adewale of All Her Words in Central Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eniafe Isis Adewale.

Eniafe Isis, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Oddly enough this is a hard question for me to answer especially at this point in my life where I am trying to unravel if only to myself, my current story. For me, one of the trickiest things about the idea of the “story” is that there is never just one. There’s the ones we’ve chosen to tell, are ready to tell, are the easiest to tell and, or, the ones we just happen to have told the most.

The story I’ve told the most is the one where I left home at the age of 16 to go to New York City for a 6-weeks summer intensive with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and ended up living there for thirteen years. The story I rarely tell is the one about growing up in a little town called Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, California. I came across an IG post a couple of months ago that said: “What’s it like living in Riverside? [response] “Bro…LA is like “The Hills”… Riverside is like “The Hills Have Eyes.” Out loud I laughed when reading it, inside a piece of me crumbled because it brought back feelings and memories that still, to this day, I don’t talk about or have the words to describe. Memories like seeing a cross burn on a front lawn, being called a Niger in the 3rd grade, being sung the klu klux clan song in middle school and being told to “go back to where you came from” by a fellow student in science class in high school. They’re memories of being the only brown girl in almost every classroom and dance studio. Memories of rarely being seen, in full, accepted or understood. This, I think, is the part of my story where I became familiar and at home in aloneness and solitude. Where I learned that being unseen could be a safe space. In hindsight, being unseen, in this way also kept me hidden from myself. But then, there were always the words…my words are where I’ve kept my stories, the ones I’ve told out loud, the ones I still cannot tell and the ones I’m still processing.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It is great to pursue your passion but I don’t think that every passion is meant to  be a career. It’s ok to have a passion as a hobby and it’s ok if some our passions don’t make us money. I think we’re allowed that.

I wouldn’t say things have been “easy”. There’s always ups and downs, ebb and flow and with this flow has come lessons, and if I’m learning, I’m growing. My most consistent growth has been in understanding how to show up as myself for myself because I’m still changing and getting comfortable with, and in, who I am: deeply feeling and flawed, deeply reflective and in general in possession of a lot of depth that for most people has been considered to be, “to much”. But this depth is also the thing that allows me to connect more genuinely with others. It’s what I think allows me to sit down with someone, ask them to tell me their stories, and they feel safe enough to tell me the stories they haven’t told.

Please tell us about All Her Words.
I describe all her words as a journey-telling platform and journey-telling is the unwrapping and unraveling of the layers within our stories. Through this telling, all her words allows women to narrate and re-thread the pieces of their stories that may need it, and do it in their own voices and words.

I created the platform, a bit by mistake, at a particularly dark point in my journey where I was trying to see these unseen parts of myself. Through all her words, I foster a space where women, especially those not often chosen or choosing to speak and/or be seen can speak more transparently and be seen more authentically, raw and unfiltered.

Thus far the thing I am most proud of is that it is allowing women to see themselves, to hear themselves and to come home to themselves and all the pieces and parts that make them whole.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t think luck has played a role in my life or business but I do believe divine curation has. Not only am I led to what is meant for me but I am led away from things that are not and this can be frustrating especially when trying to be in control and thinking I always know what is for me.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/allherwords

Image Credit:
Photographer: Emiliano Styles

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