Her poetic powers, in words and song

But to hear the music of this Boston-based poet and vocalist is to understand that the slogan, despite its brevity, is an all-encompassing core philosophy. Her lyrics - elegiac musings on freedom, sacrifice, and finding one’s voice - are stretched over minimalist bass grooves and a twinkling piano melody or delivered against hip-hop rhythms.

Iyeoka, the name under which she performs, is opening for Femi Kuti at the Paradise Rock Club tomorrow. Like his father, Fela Kuti, the late godfather of Afropop, Femi traffics in earnest political messages, often about his native Nigeria, and Iyeoka sees him as something of a kindred spirit.

“Everyone sees him as his father, but he has his own resolution, his own voice,’’ Iyeoka said recently from San Francisco, where she was doing a residency with Lyrical Minded, a nonprofit that works with teens who have been through juvenile court. “He had his own movement going, and we have that in common. He had so much difficulty breaking from that image of ‘Fela’s son.’ I had to find a way to rise from the intention and direction my parents had for me.’’

Like her two brothers, Iyeoka, a first-generation Nigerian-American, has a pharmaceutical degree and was a practicing pharmacist before launching her career as a poet and performer. She considers sharing a bill with a globally established musician a milestone in her performance career, which she has constructed gradually over the past decade as she rose through the ranks of the local, and national, poetry slam circuit. For eight years running she has represented the Lizard Lounge, the Cambridge nightspot that has hosted the weekly Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam since 1997, in national slam competitions. (The Jam is like a slam, but with live musicians.)

“There are creative ways of expressing what’s going on there,’’ Iyeoka said. “I believe in tapping into creativity with things that are important to me, like the work I’m doing back home in Nigeria. To integrate that into poetry and share it with diverse audiences is to plant the seed for future investors and movement. It means people are recognizing there’s something they can do to make a difference in Third World countries, that there are relationships they can build. And inspiration is free.’’

Soon opportunities arose for fellowships and recording projects, like the invitation to record on last year’s “In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2,’’ giving her the confidence to quit her full-time job as a pharmacist. Now she’s pursuing her music career while also serving as global spokeswoman for the Amenawon Foundation, a nonprofit that supports projects that develop infrastructure and provide educational resources in rural Nigeria.

Whereas many musicians establish stardom and then become activists (for example, Bono’s work for Africa), Iyeoka’s stirring message propels her toward fame. By turns overtly political and fiercely personal, Iyeoka’s poetry tells a story of identity politics, a story that has grown more dense and complicated with each of her frequent visits to Nigeria. Her parents moved back eight years ago and have been working on community development projects since.

In a recent poem, “I Travel Home to Remember the Sound of Morning,’’ she writes: “I will remember my Aunti - her famous Jeloff rice/ Asking me in flawless Ishan native tongue/ ‘Ofure . . . Onegbe? . . . How is everything? . . . You’re too skinny’/ And I, struggling to keep up, clumsily responding/ ‘Butayay, Aunti?’ That means, I don’t know what you just said.’’

An a cappella recording of this poem is delivered with urgent cadences that call to mind the pulpit as easily as the fluid iambic pentameter of the Elizabethan era. When Iyeoka performs with her band, however, the lyrics are set to a 1970s groove or sultry R&B melodies, evoking neo-soul singer Erykah Badu and spoken-word artist and jazz musician Gil Scott Heron.

“She gets up there and gently removes your soul from you, shows it to you, and puts it back in,’’ said Brian Capobianchi, a frequent collaborator and MC in her band, Rock by Funk Tribe. “She really engages with the audience, and what she says is approachable by all walks of life - young, old, black, white. You just watch transformation happen in the audience. There’s something that seems like empowerment that goes on when people watch her.’’

Iyeoka, a Boston Latin grad who studied at Northeastern University, counts Nina Simone, Alice Walker, and four-time National Poetry Slam winner (and former Boston Globe columnist) Patricia Smith among her influences. Those artists represent the balance of music, literary poetry, and pop accessibility that she aims to craft.

“I don’t want anything to do with the current hip-hop scene or what’s happening in mainstream pop,’’ she said. “I recognize that what we do at the Lizard Lounge is a movement and that it made me, and it makes an impact when it comes to hybridizing genres - poetry and soul and funk.’’

Iyeoka has been working on a variety of projects that expose her to a wide range of audiences. Discovery Health, an Oprah Winfrey-owned subsidiary of the Discovery Channel, hired her to write and do the voice-over for a promo spot, and she’s developing a workshop for Brave New Voices, Russell Simmons’s HBO docu-series about teenage slam poets. She also does professional development, which arguably does a better job tending to the soul than any drug prescription she may have filled.

“It’s about getting word out of how powerful the spoken-word medium can be,’’ she said. “It’s allowed me to make a living utilizing the momentum of this artistic form. I want others to see how relevant it can be in their own niches. It’s broad but age-old at the same time.’’