We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Earth O. Jallow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Earth O. below.
Alright, Earth O. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project that I’ve worked on would be my one woman show that displays five different personalities with each of them told in a different voice. #BecomingHER (Title of the show) has not been released, yet, but is slated for a fall 2022 debut!
I believe the reason this project took on so much meaning, to me, was because each personality played an intricate role in shaping my personal life. Each personality suffered some type of life trauma that forced each to pick up an art form that ultimately saved their lives! This project was born, after being told many times, that I should tell my story. My story of growing up feeling like a Motherless child, being sexually violated at a young age, enduring various trauma’s at different ages, and the most traumatic was losing my baby Brother to murder. It’s a one woman show that has something for everyone, including men.
Without the arts, I know I would have given up on life when I almost died during my fibroid surgery! This show will #Heal the Wombs that birth the babies and future generations are extremely meaningful to me!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hello,
My name is
Earth O. Jallow and I moved to Ohio from Anaheim, California. I was one of five black families in my junior high school and experienced “culture shock”, when I arrived in Ohio. I was a little black girl who talked proper or I sounded “white” as the other students pointed out. My voice was all I had and so, I used it! I used it on the cheerleading team, the volleyball team, the track team, as a member of “Future Teachers of America”, in the exclusive club we formed at school, and as a community advocate I used My voice!
When I moved to Columbus, Ohio (1994) I started teaching in their school system with a curriculum I wrote that would give inner city students skills they may not otherwise receive in their school setting. One of the teachers heard My presentation and introduced Me to a local talk radio host who thought I had what it took to do radio. He liked My voice and I’ve been doing radio, now for a little over twenty years. I’ve had My own show (Gett’N Down to Earth), as well as, cohosted with various shows over the years.
Television came about a little more wayward than radio! I was on a Good Morning America (GMA) cruise in 2006 and was picked to do a segment with Gayle King, on “The Power of Friendship”, which aired nationally for two days. I knew, after that experience, that I wanted to do television, again, but didn’t know how it would be possible. As, The Universe would have it, the former talk radio host was contacted about a national network needing content and was asked if, they could provide any of substance. Well, they contacted Me and two others, we formed a team and aired on Bounce23 TV for eight seasons! Our reruns are now being played weekly on Urban One TV, due to them buying out Bounce23. We are waiting to get the green light to return to the newly purchased radio/television studios, to begin taping for a new season of “Khari Free At Last”. Everything halted due to COVID19.
The television, radio, and YouTube content is all encompassing…meaning nothing is off limits! I enjoy being solution driven because we can discuss the problems all day, what are we going to do about it?
I am most proud of the work I do with the youth! I am a founding member of Thiossane West African Dance Institute, and we’ve been in existence for more than twenty years, as a professional dance institute, we cultivate the students mind, body, and spirit, to produce well rounded young people. Teaching West African Dance to students as young as three years old gives Me a sense of purpose when it comes to passing on and sharing culture with young minds. It highlights our many similarities and diminishes our differences, so we may see one another as simple humans, sharing life’s experiences together, through dance.
Voice-overs was something I got into due to cutting the commercials for the Institutes annual Spring concerts and other events happening throughout the city. I found that I really enjoyed being able to change My voice to accommodate what was being promoted. I then started narrating for the Institutes theatrical plays, during the Spring concert and now it has become one of My most important jobs for the Institute. I, also, made voice-overs a side hustle!
My one woman show “#BecomingHER”, is by far My most favorite creation! This show will journey with each personality over valley’s of trauma to arrive at Triumph, with the help of ART! Poetry, Painting, Dance, Song, and Voice will all be explored with the help of a few friends, to give the audience a FULL ride of emotions! This show was written by Me and all five personalities will be voiced and played by Me. This show feels like being pregnant for more than four years because it was due to go up on March 29th, 2020 but the world shutdown two weeks prior to the debut.
It feels good to know that it’s back on the table with a release coming in Fall of 2022!
With all that I do in the public spotlight, people laugh when I tell them I’m an “extroverted introvert”. yet it is true! Outside of radio/television, running My Ready, Set, Grow, girls group, performing, or speaking publicly I’d much rather grab a seat in a corner and just observe!
My last creative outlet for this interview is books! I’ve loved reading ever since a young girl, perusing Judy Bloom or being wild with Maurice Sendak and “Where the Wild Things Are”. So, when a mutual friend called Me up, looking to hook her author friend up with a publicist, I got the call. I had no idea how to represent a book author and told the client so when she called. Her response was. “We will learn together,” and that is exactly what we did! I joined author Joylynn M. Ross in her company, End of the Rainbow Projects”, and thousands of road and sky miles later, I am still there as one of her content editors on special projects! My novel “The End of Yesterday”, is the longer version of the one woman show and is set to be released in 2023! Reading has been one of My escapes, since grade school and I believe in the power of the written word. If, you can read…you can do anything!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
A better world is what motivates Me to get up everyday and do things that positively impact someone else’s life. I have a tattoo behind My right ear of the Nkyinkyim an African adinkra symbol that signifies change, adaptability, and selfless service to others. My mission/goal is to be the person in young people’s lives that I wish I had growing up, by being their listening ear, their sounding board when they feel they can’t talk to their parents, encouraging them to empower themselves by using their voices through whatever mediums they are comfortable with, whether it be, starting their own YouTube stations, having them be a guest on a show, or getting them active in their community.
I am a believer in healing young people, so they don’t grow up to be broken adults. My motto is: Healing the Wombs that Birth the Babies…
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being able to share My art/work with whomever may need it, is more important to Me than sharing it with the world! The entire world may not need what I have to offer, however, discovering the small group or crowd of individuals that would greatly benefit from what I offer is thrilling because I get to see up close and first hand, that AHA on a child’s face when they finally get a movement or years later getting a call or text from an adult that was once a student, telling Me how I positively impacted their lives for the better.
Knowing that I can accommodate Myself and others when My time is My own is another GREAT aspect of working for Myself! I can eat lunch whenever I want, don’t have to punch a clock, and having the freedom to converse with Nature whenever I need to gives Me so much joy!
I feel ALIVE when I dance, I am HOPEFUL when I create, and I feel FULL when others smile and this for Me is extremely rewarding!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dwn2earthpr.com
- Instagram: Earth O. Jallow
- Facebook: Obaa Yaa Jallow
- Linkedin: Earth O. Jallow
- Twitter: Earth O. Jallow
- Youtube: Gett’N Down to Earth