Zakiyyah

Zakiyyah is an artist-activist who utilizes music and visual media to explore themes that centralize marginalized communities via her production company, Black and Bold Productions. As an actress and classically-trained singer who is well-versed in Opera, Hip-Hop, Jazz, and R&B, she employs her extremely versatile skill-set to reach a broad range of audiences and craft a sound that is uniquely her own--including her most well-known, "Hip-Hopera". She’s had the pleasure of bringing these sounds to numerous audiences from the House of Blues to the United Nations. After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in Political Science and Sociology, she worked in politics for City Councilor Tito Jackson and later Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins. There she created D.A.S.H. (Defensive Aids in Situations of Help); a women’s self-defense program that travels throughout Boston and neighboring cities. Zakiyyah spent a year pursuing her artistic and scholastic ambitions in the Czech Republic, Thailand, South Africa, and Colombia, hosting Black Lives Matter events in the latter two countries and recording with Grammy-nominated group Explosión Negra. She also has a commitment to education, having worked as an administrator at Conservatory Lab Charter School, a voice instructor at the Hamilton Garrett Music and Arts Academy and presently offering private vocal instruction via Harvard’s Holden Voice Program. In addition to her artistic practice, Zakiyyah currently works as a racial equity consultant with Arts Connect International, helping arts organizations reassess their practices through the lens of equity and creative justice. Zakiyyah is honored to be the 22-23 Season Partner for Boston Children’s Chorus, where she will compose an original work for BCC and curate the production of an accompanying video, facilitate workshops in arts-activism, write the script for their annual MLK show at Symphony Hall, and perform with the youth at said event.