Amma Dawn McKen was born in Brooklyn, New York. Amma has been singing traditional Yoruba Orisa music since the age of 14. She began her journey of exploring and learning the chants, songs, and prayers of the Yoruba traditional religion and culture in 1972. The Orisa songs are sacred chants used for worship of Oludumare (God in Yoruba), the Orisa (saints) and the elements of life and nature. As a priestess of Yemonja for 27 years, a mother of six children and a grandmother Amma is also a dancer, a professional tye-dye artist, clothing designer, natural hair stylist and Owner of Abeokuta Enterprises; African inspired apparel company.
Amma is the Co- Founder and Director of Omiyesa, a cultural music group located in New York. Amma currently instructs classes and workshops on the chants for the Orisas and the use of chanting to practitioners of the Yoruba religion in the New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago and North Carolina. Amma has traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world to various elementary, intermediate and high schools as well as colleges and universities conducting lecture demonstrations and performances individually and with the group including the Carolina Theater with the African American Dance Ensemble directed by Chuck Davis; Cultural Journey Back to the Roots Directed by Bradley Simmons at Duke University; New England Technical College, Temple University and OctoberFest in Germany.
Amma has been the lead singer for Bembes for the past 35 years. Bembes are gatherings of the priests, priestesses and the congregation who come together to worship Olodumare and the Orisas. Amma has been invited and selected to sing for numerous Bembes and religious ceremonies by worshippers in and outside the United States.
Amma’s mentors and instructors include: the late Chief Hawthorne Bey, singer and drummer of traditional Orisa and West African music, Musical Director of Charles Moore Dance Company; the Olukose Anthony Wiles, singer and drummer of traditional Orisa and West African music, Co-Founder of Maimouna Keita School of African Dance and MFOA (Messages from our Ancestors); Orlando Puntilla Rios, Singer and drummer of Orisa music, the late Russell Bourghs, Singer of Orisa music and the late, Kwame Ishangi, drummer, singer, dancer, Director of Ishangi Dance Family.
She has been cited in Orin Orisa: Songs for Selected Heads by John Mason, 1994 as well as participated in music recordings such as Santisimo by Emilio Barreto; Spirit Rhythms Sacred Drumming & Chants from Cuba by Orlando Puntilla Rios & Nueva Generacion and Orisa by Milton Cardona.
