My media journey began during my university years, when I founded Yada Magazine and The Talkaholic, the latter winning Best Poetry Blog at the Nigerian Blog Awards in 2010. I went on to build an award-winning broadcast career at Television Continental (TVC) as an entertainment journalist and on-air host, covering major cultural moments and interviewing public figures across music, film, and politics. That work earned me On-Air Personality of the Year (Television) at the 2018 Maya Awards and a 2017 nomination at the prestigious Future Awards Africa Awards.
In 2018, I shifted toward international and impact-driven media, working with the Pidgin service at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), where I reported on underrepresented issues, including collaborating on a groundbreaking report on intersex experiences in Nigeria, and served as a producer for the live coverage of the country’s 2019 general elections. I later served as Editor of Love Matters Naija at RNW Media, developing inclusive, youth-centered content on love, health, and identity while contributing to global digital strategy and innovation.
I am also the founder and former Editor-in-Chief of The Rustin Times, a pan-African digital media platform amplifying LGBTQ+ stories across the continent and the diaspora. The platform received international recognition as a finalist for the NOW-Us! Awards in the Netherlands and the Global Media Forum Innovation Lab in Germany. As a filmmaker, I directed and produced Defiance: Voices of a New Generation, a critically acclaimed documentary spotlighting queer Nigerian youth that garnered over 30,000 organic views on YouTube within the first month of release and was screened internationally across Africa and the United States. I also co-directed State of Emergency, a short film addressing Nigeria’s gender-based violence crisis for RNW Media.
Today, alongside my work with Culture of Color Collective, I host Odejuma, a podcast featuring intimate, everyday stories from across the Black Diaspora. I also host Culture Notes, a YouTube series exploring arts, culture, media, and social commentary. My commitment to community organizing and advocacy has been recognized with the Volunteer Award from The Advocates for Human Rights in 2022 and with my role as a Community Builder with the Minnesota Black Collective Foundation in 2024. I have also received global recognition through fellowships with Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum and the BAF Media Justice Fellowship, as well as the Liberation Award for Outstanding Contribution to Queer Youth Activism.
Across continents and mediums, I continue to shape culture, shift narratives, and affirm marginalized voices, whether behind a camera, leading narrative strategy, building community through cultural experiences, or onstage.
My name is Harry Itie, and I am a media and communications expert, cultural producer, and LGBTQ+ advocate based in Minneapolis.
With over a decade of experience in journalism, digital media, and strategic communications, I have utilized storytelling to amplify marginalized voices, challenge dominant narratives, and create spaces rooted in equity, creativity, and community. In 2025, I founded Culture of Color Collective, a Minneapolis-based social enterprise where I serve as Founder and Creative Director. Through the Collective, I design and curate culturally rooted experiences that center Black LGBTQ+ communities, from nightlife events and community gatherings to workshops, creative productions, and consulting, all grounded in joy, belonging, and cultural expression.