Joy Oladokun Just Wants To Connect People | On Your Radar

“I CALL HER lesbian Santa Claus because at the end of the dinner she disappears and she comes back with Chaka Khan.” Joy Oladokun is retelling the story of the first time she met her personal idol Brandi Carlile. At Newport Folk Festival a few years ago, Oladokun recalls, “I’ve been a fan of Brandi Carlile for a very, very long time. I don’t know how it happened, but I ended up walking after her set to get on a boat with her and her wife to go eat oysters. It was cool to have a hero that was so inviting.” Later in the dinner, Carlile disappeared and returned with Chaka Khan. “Everyone that I was with—we just lost it. It was one of those moments that was like, ‘Cool you can do this job and you can do it in a way that brings people in.’ It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and also a really great lesson.”