Akua Naru​

Akua Naru​

Practitioner Fellow in Arts and Expressive Culture (2019-2020) Race and Media Fellow, Artist and Expressive Culture (2019-2020)

Akua Naru is a Hip Hop artist, producer, activist, and scholar, who theorizes the myriad experiences of Black women through rhyme along a sonic spectrum from jazz to soul. She has released four albums: “...the journey aflame (2011)”, “Live & Aflame Sessions (2012)”, “The Miner’s Canary (2015)”, and “The Blackest Joy (2018)”–three of which were on the label she co-founded, The Urban Era. 

Akua has performed hundreds of shows in more than fifty countries across five continents with her six-piece band. She has been invited to lecture at Harvard University, University of Oxford, Cornell University, Princeton University, Fordham University, University of Cologne (Germany), Ahfad University for Women (Sudan), and Pivot Point College (China), among countless others. 

Prior to coming to Brown, Akua Naru was a Nasir Jones Fellow, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University (2018-19).