Boston Pride : Entertainment : Rizi Timane

Entertainment 2008 at Boston Pride Festival - June 14 - City Hall Plaza - starts at Noon

RIZI TIMANE

www.rizigospel.com
www.myspace.com/rizitimane

So Who is Rizi? Well, I am an extremely unique individual as i am sure you are starting to figure out for yourself. I originate from a small tribe of festive warriors called the zuru tribe of Northern Nigeria (not to be confused with the zulu warriors of South Africa). I was born and raised back home where I learnt honor, loyalty and integrity from my father Ishaya whom I watched go from a poor rural farmer to a highly succesful diplomat and real estate developer. This instilled in me at an early age, the belief that with hardwork and perserverance, EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

I remember always being artistically inclined and I actually wrote and sang my 1st song at the age of 6! Yes, it was somewhat silly. I was mad at my mother for going to the market without me that day so i sat there and wrote a song expressing my anger. It was called " mommy won't take me to the market" LOL! Eventually, at age 9, I joined the choir (thanks to my God fearing mother, i have always loved Jesus) while in military school and before you go wondering about the whole military school thing, NO, I was'nt forced to go there because I was a naughty kid, I had to go because in Nigeria, they are the only schools with free education and we could'nt afford anything else so it was military school to get our equivalent of what you call the high school diploma or no education at all--- So there).

I discovered my love for acting at that time as well and in addition to acting in everything I could, I created a 3 girl comedy group called "Bros & Company" and we would have a one hour comedy show every saturday night at 9pm. These shows were always so packed to capacity but I still find myself wondering if this was because we were genuinely funny or merely because we were in a boarding school and my poor schoolmates had no alternative. LOL! Oh well, I guess we will never find out (which might just be a good thing).

Well, I graduated military school and moved to London where I stayed for 10 years (obtaining most of my education including my Bachelors degree). The thing I miss the most about being there is the fact that it only takes me 6 hours to get home when I want to visit my beloved family as opposed to the 20-22 hour flight I must endure from Los Angeles! What I don't miss at all is the CRAZY British Weather. Nothing beats the weather here in Southern California (well, except home perhaps). I am now in my 8th year of being in the USA and I must say, I have no complaints. I started as a student, finishing my masters degree in Business Management then got a great job as an art buyer for a prestigious african art gallery (it was fun travelling back and forth throughout Africa to purchase and bring back authentic art for the store but sadly september 11th changed all that as flights became restricted, more expensive, and the importing process became too rigorous and slow which all resulted in the closure of the gallery).

While it marked the end of a succesful career, it also marked the beginning of a life altering process in my life. I realized that i had stopped pursuing my initial dreams, that life was too short and precious to waste another moment doing something that was OK but not my actual dream so off to the studio I went and since then, I have recorded 2 full albums( my personal favorite being this one), toured several cities of the USA, obtained several levels of acting training/school, constantly auditioning, signed with an awesome commercial agent and living the dream each day :-) My motto in life? DREAM ON. DREAM BIG.ONLY TIME WILL TELL WHERE THE JOURNEY WILL LEAD!!