Omilani

Biography

Omilani, born Jessica "Omilani" Alarcon, is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist, scholar, and activist of AfroLatina and Filipino heritage. She began performing at age six, appearing on cable television, radio, and in newspapers as a child prodigy. By sixteen she had made her print debut in The Source Magazine, won a Lollapalooza Poetry Slam, and performed at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City. Her stage name "Omilani" is Yoruba in origin, reflecting her deep engagement with the African diaspora — a thread that would define her entire artistic and academic life. She later earned a B.A. summa cum laude from Cornell University, received a Fulbright Hays fellowship to Nigeria, and completed master's thesis research at the University of Cambridge, with fieldwork spanning Africa and the Caribbean.

Omilani's music draws from neo-soul, folkloric dance, tropical fusion, salsa, and hip-hop, and is distinguished by its multilingual reach: she sings in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Tagalog, and Yoruba. Her catalog spans approximately ten albums, with notable releases including Ore Yeye O (2022), a nine-track Yoruba diaspora record, and Ugat Filipino (Filipino Roots, 2022), a twelve-track Tagalog-language album dedicated to her Filipino ancestry. Music is inseparable from her broader creative practice, which encompasses two documentary films — LATINEGRAS: The Journey of Self Love through an AfroLatina Lens, which premiered in Seville, Spain, and APART of the Story: Island Dreams of an AfroFilipina, screened at the Woman Scream Festival 2022 — along with published books, a comic book superhero series, and over ten scholarly publications.

In 2013, Omilani founded Latinegras, one of the earliest platforms dedicated to AfroLatino visibility, predating the mainstream social media wave of that conversation. She has been a Top 7 GRAMMY Showcase Finalist and has spoken at Hispanicize and Wonder Women Tech. Her book AfroFilipina History & Culture is documented as the first AfroFilipino history book ever published. Birth date and precise birthplace are not publicly disclosed.

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Fun Facts

• Her stage name 'Omilani' is a Yoruba name she adopted to honor her connection to Nigerian and Afro-diasporic culture.
• She was a Top 7 GRAMMY Showcase Finalist and won a Lollapalooza Poetry Slam as a teenager — while balancing regular school life.
• AfroFilipina History & Culture is documented as the first AfroFilipino history book ever published.
• Her documentary APART of the Story was partly sparked by a search for long-lost family in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• She sings in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Tagalog, and Yoruba — often within the same body of work.

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Yoruba/Nigerian oral traditions - Formative influence on her name, musical language (Ore Yeye O album), and cultural identity framework. Deepened via Fulbright Hays fellowship to Nigeria.

External Links

• Spotify