akua naru

Named the “Toni Morrison of hip-hop” by Dr. Cornel West, akua naru is a hip hop artist, poet, producer, archivist, playwright, and Assistant Professor of Hip Hop, at UC Santa Cruz. She is Co-Founder of the Cologne, Germany based independent record label and production company, The Urban Era. Her music glides across the Black American music spectrum, from hip-hop, spoken word, soul to jazz. To date, she has released and produced five albums. Along with her six-piece band, naru has performed over a thousand concerts across five continents from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo to Moscow to New York City. naru is a 2015 Cannes, France, Midem Artist Accelerator winner, a 2017 winner of the Gold Gate Award for Best Narrative Short, and a 2019 German NRW Pop Preis nominee. Her video, Poetry: How Does It Feel?, with close to 11 million YouTube views, was named by actress Cara Delevinge as her favorite “baby making” music on the popular Kelly Clarkson show. She has been a fellow at Harvard, Yale, Brown, Fordham, and Georgia State.