Early life and career
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]
In 2018, she formed the duo 700 Bliss with past collaborator DJ Haram and released their debut EP Spa 700 through Halcyon Veil and Don Giovanni Records. [22]
She served as one of the guest curators at the 2018 Le Guess Who? music festival. [23] [24] In 2019, she released Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes . [25]
Ayewa co-leads and provides lyrics and vocals for the "liberation-oriented free-jazz collective" Irreversible Entanglements. [26] 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, [27] and their releases have been included in best-of lists in Magnet, [28] NPR Music, [29] The Quietus , [30] and Stereogum 's "20 Best Jazz Albums Of The 2010s". [31] The band's instrumentalists also performed on Ayewa's debut theatrical work, Circuit City . [32]
In the fall of 2021, Ayewa began serving as an assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. [33]
In 2025, Moor Mother released a collaborative album with Sumac, titled The Film .
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