Laolu Senbanjo also known as Laolu NYC, is an Nigerian Visual Artist, musician, singer/songwriter and a former human rights attorney in Nigeria. He was born in Ilorin to Yoruba parents. Laolu got his Law degree at the University of Ilorin and worked as a human rights lawyer specializing in women and children's rights. He later quit his career and moved to Brooklyn to pursue his passion for arts. He developed his art style which he calls “Afromysterics” meaning the mystery of the african thought pattern; it combines African pattern themes and tradition. Laolu draws his inspiration from his Yoruba heritage and mythology to create complex patterns and rich visual stories. His work has drawn comparison to Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Harring. 
I chose this picture of myself because this was a picture of me working at his gallery opening. Laolu is an inspiration to me because we both come from the same background. As someone who also grew up in Nigeria, seeing someone who followed their passion in arts is really inspiring and also seeing him exploring our Yoruba mythology and bringing it to the limelight is amazing. Due to colonization, our culture has been demonized and I wasn’t able to thoroughly learn much about my heritage. Working for him as a photographer intern has been life changing. I got the opportunity to connect with him and learn so much about our culture and many other things.
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