Lola Akinmade Åkerström
About Lola Akinmade Åkerström
Speech topics
The power of asking “Why not?”
Society loves to put us all in neat cultural boxes that often don't overlap seamlessly. When they do overlap, it sometimes feels like two continental plates colliding and seething. The idea I want to spread through my talk is for our creative lives to be metaphorical representations of the rhetorical question • "Why not?".
When society tries to stuff us into specific boxes and tell us we can't play in certain sandboxes creatively, this should be the question we subconsciously demand an answer to, while living passionate lives that don't actually wait for the answer.
This inspirational keynote will provide key takeaways when we consciously and subconsciously ask "why not?" through our words and actions.
Speaking videos
Books by Lola Akinmade Åkerström
“In Der Mitte Liegt Das Glück” (2017)
Having lived on three different continents — Africa, North America, and now Europe — for extended periods of time, Nigerian-American author Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström is drawn to the complexities and nuances of culture and how they manifest themselves within relationships - www.akinmade.com Based in Sweden, Lọlá is an international-bestselling and award-winning visual storyteller, speaker, and photographer. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, Sunday Times Travel, The Telegraph, New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Slate, Travel Channel, Adventure Magazine, Lonely Planet, amongst others. In addition to contributing to several books, she is the author of the following books–—2018 Lowell Thomas Award winner for best travel book, DUE NORTH, international-bestselling LAGOM: Swedish Secret of Living Well, available in over 17 foreign language editions, and internationally-acclaimed IN EVERY MIRROR SHE'S BLACK. She has been recognized with multiple awards for her work, including being named a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine and receiving the 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year Bill Muster Award. She was honored with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture in 2018. She contributed to National Geographic's Image Collection.
“Due North: A Collection of Travel Observations, Reflections, And Snapshots Across Colo (1)” (2017)
I know what's coming. I'd gone through this drill dozens of times. As many times as each of those vibrant and colorful visas in my little green book, my Nigerian passport. Even before the immigration officer pulls me aside, I instinctively pull myself aside. He glosses over my visa. A visa I've spent hundreds of dollars acquiring. He finds his government's issued permission, but curiosity gets the better of him. He thumbs through the rest, looking through the two green passports stapled together because the visas had outnumbered the pages. "Why all these visas?" he asks. This scene was repeated in airport after airport across several continents. The more visa stamps in my passport, the more my motives for travel were deeply questioned. Why was I traveling?
At a glanceLola Akinmade Åkerström
Recommended offer:
Get a custom quote for your event:
Get StartedBrowse Similar Speakers
Speaker Search is a marketplace of speakers designed for talent buyers. We do not represent or manage speakers; instead, we provide event planners with the most comprehensive resource to discover and book the right talent.