Moor Mother | |
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![]() Ayewa performing in 2017 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Camae Ayewa |
Also known as | |
Born | Aberdeen, Maryland, U.S. | November 19, 1981
Origin | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Genres | Experimental[3] |
Occupation(s) |
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Years active | 2012–present[4] |
Labels | |
Website | moormother |
Camae Ayewa,[5] (born November 19, 1981[6]) better known by her stage name Moor Mother, is an American poet, musician, and activist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[7] She is one half of the collective Black Quantum Futurism, along with Rasheedah Phillips,[8] and co-leads the groups Irreversible Entanglements and 700 Bliss.[9][10]
Ayewa was born in Aberdeen, Maryland, where she grew up in a public housing project.[11][12] She moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to study photography at the Art Institute.[13]
In 2016, Moor Mother released a studio album, Fetish Bones, on Don Giovanni Records.[14] The album, which was released alongside a 122-page book of poetry,[13] was included on year-end lists by Pitchfork,[15] Rolling Stone,[16] and The Wire.[17]
In 2017, she released a studio album, The Motionless Present, on The Vinyl Factory.[18] It featured collaborations with Geng, DJ Haram, Mental Jewelry, and Rasheedah Phillips.[19] The same year, she released a collaborative EP with Mental Jewelry, titled Crime Waves, on Don Giovanni Records.[20][21]
She served as one of the guest curators at the 2018 Le Guess Who? music festival.[22][23] In 2019, she released Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes.[24]
Ayewa co-leads and provides lyrics and vocals for the "liberation-oriented free-jazz collective" Irreversible Entanglements.[25] She met the quintet's members through musical and activist endeavors: bassist Luke Stewart shared bills with her band the Mighty Paradocs; saxophonist Keir Neuringer worked with Books Through Bars, whose events Ayewa has emceed; and the trio of Ayewa, Stewart, and Neuringer was followed by the duo of trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes at a 2015 Musicians Against Brutality event following the shooting of Akai Gurley.[9] The group performed in the inaugural season of the Kennedy Center's "Direct Current" contemporary culture showcase,[26] and their releases have been included in best-of lists in Magnet,[27] NPR Music,[28] The Quietus,[29] and Stereogum's "20 Best Jazz Albums Of The 2010s".[30] The band's instrumentalists also performed on Ayewa's debut theatrical work, Circuit City.[31]
In the fall of 2021, Ayewa began serving as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music.[32]