Grace Ladoja is a cultural curator whose seven-year-old pageant, Homecoming, embodies that spirit standing on the crossroads of music, trend, artwork, and sports activities. By way of it, Ladoja is bringing Nigerian tradition to the worldwide forefront. Homecoming has labored with rising stars like Olaolu Slawn, esteemed designer Mowalola, and world artist Rema whereas persevering with to highlight the subsequent technology by cultivating a group the place success feels inevitable.
This 12 months, Ladoja used Homecoming as a launchpad for her newest enterprise: an idea retailer that marks the pageant’s first everlasting area. Over the weekend, the shop got here to life with pop-ups from manufacturers like Free The Youth, Ambush, Tia Adeola, Mowalola, Stüssy, and extra.
As an alternative of totally constructing it out straight away, she’s turning it right into a dynamic cultural incubator, inviting hair artists, trend designers, singers, and extra to activate the area and form its id over the subsequent six months. The complete buildout is ready for completion by November, simply in time for Nigeria’s vibrant “Detty December” season.
In collaboration with the manufacturers, the artistic minds and tastemakers behind them led panels and workshops all through the day. Attendees have been free to return and go, gaining useful insights from masterclasses, workshops, and extra. The programming spanned a number of industries, together with sports activities, design, tech, and music, and featured notable figures similar to Yoon Ahn, the co-founder, and inventive director of Ambush, Angelo Baque, the founder behind Awake NY, photographer Gabriel Moses, and others.
Additionally they launched an interactive sports activities factor, unveiling a recent soccer idea impressed by the re-release of Nike’s iconic T90. The competitors featured star-studded groups, The Plug, Native, Avenue Souk, Waf, Motherlan, and Homecoming, battling it out in a high-energy, free-flowing showdown. The thrill peaked with a shock look from soccer legend Jay-Jay Okocha, including much more buzz to the action-packed occasion.
“I opened up my first idea retailer. It sounds loopy, but it surely’s actual,” Lodja shared with ESSENCE. “I’m going to make use of the subsequent six months to do testing and this most likely sums up with group means to me. I’m [also] going to make use of the subsequent six months to ideate that area with the group it’s going to serve. So I’m going to allow them to feed in. I’ve received a framework of what I need to do however I would like [to] kind it with the group to allow them to take some possession in it,” she added.
Homecoming’s biggest power lies in its means to nurture and uplift a group. It’s constructed on collaboration, with members leaning on one another for data, assets, and help—rising stronger collectively. From the beginning, Homecoming set out to attract extra folks to Nigeria, shining a light-weight on the expertise rooted there.
Born within the UK, Ladoja first visited Nigeria 16 years in the past and immediately felt at dwelling, which impressed her to call the initiative “Homecoming.” She understood the significance of investing in a single’s roots and noticed herself as a bridge, connecting Nigeria to London. Figuring out with each communities, she is devoted to highlighting the importance of cultural change and empowering each to thrive.
Emphasizing unity and equal illustration, the inaugural pageant broke the mould by eliminating VIP sections—everybody was on the identical stage. As an alternative of headlining acts, huge names have been woven all through the lineup, making a shared expertise not like something different festivals had accomplished.
“We did our first activation with Slawn on the retailer for his shoe there. Which is so lovely as a result of Slawn’s story and mine may be very distinctive,” Ladoja shared. “We discovered him at Homecoming when he was 15, and we took him to London and we’ve been on this journey with him since.” She remembers how intentional discovering him was and notes that she was moved to tears that day.
Throughout this level of our dialog, Ladoja additionally explains the way it feels to have begun with grassroots efforts and constructed upon these roots over time. She then expresses that all the constructing course of has been lovely. “Now we’re in my retailer and I’m launching [his shoe] and to be on that journey with somebody like that’s particular.”
Homecoming is greater than only a pageant or an idea retailer, it’s a framework, as Ladoja describes it, designed to raise Nigerian tradition on a world scale and adaptable to advertise tradition worldwide. Whereas African tradition is now within the world highlight, Ladoja and Homecoming have been forward of the curve, recognizing one thing far past this current surge.
Although Homecoming has been round since 2018, it has quietly made waves over time, activating in cities like Lagos, Ibiza, Miami, Houston, Atlanta, Paris, and extra. Shifting ahead, they continue to be dedicated to advancing tradition and fostering world connections.
