Oba Maja of Wicker Park

Oba Maja | May 1944 - October 2015
Photographed July 2015
North Milwaukee Avenue | Wicker Park, Chicago

24 x 18 Monochrome Pigment Print on Archival Rag Paper

Monday afternoon, driving north on Milwaukee Ave through Wicker Park:

“Poetry! Poems! Poetry! Poems!”

As happens so often, I am intrigued.
I make a u-turn and add yet another traffic violation to my daily meanderings.

“Are you saying Poetry?” I ask.

“Hey Brother, yeah. I write poems.
Sometimes people think I’m saying Porn, though.”

This gentleman’s name is Oba Maja.
He tells me the name means “possessed by the King’s spirit”.
We talk for a while.

I learn that he was once a choir boy and that he went to school with the infamous, and reportedly vicious Chicago mobster, Anthony Spilotro.
“Man, they had white shag carpet in the basement! I’d be afraid to come in, but Tony would say ‘don’t worry about that shit’.”

Oba Maja believes that demigods, demons, and angels walk the streets regularly. He believes in space travel as a way to understand The Creator. ‘The Creator’ is how Oba Maja refers to God.

He says that in the song ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’, the chariot is actually a spaceship.
Then, he says he can tell that I am an angel just for coming back to talk to him.
I have no response for that, because… what do you say?

He makes it clear that he is not homeless.
He and his brother have an apartment.

Between odd jobs and such, Oba Maja writes poetry.
It makes him happy and also makes him a few bucks.
People pay whatever.

He tells me that his face is part of a mural at Lake Street and Damen.
I plan to visit this a bit later.

I buy a couple of poems:
One is about the Blue Sky, the other about Love.
He gives me a hug, then I’m off.

Oba Maja in His Own Voice