damali ayo profile picture

damali ayo

The artist must take sides.

-Paul Robeson

About Me

"Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation." -Angela Davis
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damali ayo is an artist and performer who believes in social change and the promise of the potential of this country and humanity. That's not always easy, but damali tries to make it simple, accessible, and even fun. Check out her "I CAN FIX IT" project for 10 easy ways to overcome racism as an example of how she infuses energy into tired conversations about race relations in the U.S.
She is the creator of the satirical and controversial web-art-performance site RENT-A-NEGRO.COM
BRING DAMALI TO YOU! : send an email to [email protected] for a rousing presentation that will keep your community talking for months after.
damali recently launched the innovative NOW ART GRANTS program. This program uses your individual donations to fund art and artists that catalyze social change.
damali is also the author of your favorite book: HOW TO RENT A NEGRO A must-read book that gleefully blows past the boundaries of tentative talk on current race relations" - BUST Magazine
How to Rent a Negro is a hilarious and satirical look at race relations that is almost too close for comfort, this pseudo-guidebook gives both renters and rentals "much-needed" advice and tips on technique. Tips are provided in step-by-step outlines for renters to get the most for their money, and how rentals can become successful and wealthy, what they should wear, and topics of conversation to avoid. The book also serves up photo-dramatizations of some of the popular approaches covered in the book, handy tip-boxes, frequently asked questions for renters and rentals, a "How do I know if I'm being rented" quiz, a glossary of important terms, and "quickie" insta-rentals for those who need to rent on the go.
Join the How to Rent a Negro myspace group
NOW ON ITUNES and other digital music outlets! damali ayo LIVE. Ayo turns bookstores into comedy clubs with readings from HOW TO RENT A NEGRO. As an added bonus, ayo shares the stories behind the book about her 30 plus years as a "professional black person."
Do you need a "touch your own hair" t-shirt? Get one now, for you, your best friend, and your best friend's kid at "rent-a-negro TOKENS" for official rent-a-negro.com merchandise.
What Did She Just Say? is a collection of public radio stories about my art including my experience panhandling for reparations and having several paint mixers match paint to different parts of my body.
Living the Green Life and Black.Brown.Green.
On her website and in lectures across the country, damali shares her user-friendly strategies for living a life that is gentle on the earth, easy on the budget, and rewarding to the spirit. She founded BlackBrownGreen.com as a web portal of resources and information that integrate people of color and their needs and issues with the movement for environmental sustainability. It is a place for people of color to learn about green living and develop an understanding of how issues of social justice and environmental sustainability are interlinked not only in the political world, but in daily lives as well.
NOW ART is a series of participatory art/performance projects. damali offers this genre of work as "Now Art" because the works are immediate, accessible, participatory, low-cost, and deal with current issues that we face as a community/society. When you participate you are creating a moment- something that happens in the "now" and hopefully generates a cascade of thought and change for the future.
more info, exhibitions and press at: damaliayo.com
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Artist Statement
I create accessible interactive "Now Art" that engages current social issues through any and all media suitable to the task.
My work has a relentless desire to engage the audience and generate an authentic experiences for our society. I explore social/political issues that permeate our culture and our everyday experiences. I strive to create a shift in a viewer's perspective on our world and our positions within it.
Art should make people think and feel. When we are handed a mirror, we see ourselves and the culture that surrounds us. We can look away or we can look deeply, realizing we have been given an opportunity to change anything in our view.
It is the responsibility of art to be that mirror.
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/25/2006
Band Website: damaliayo.com
Band Members: damali ayo
Influences: Everyone from Adrian Piper to Alexander Hamilton to Mos Def to Patricia Williams to William Pope.L to Randy Newman to Mark Rothko to Jonathan Swift to Annie Lennox to Furious Five to Godfrey Cambridge to Dick Gregory to Samuel Beckett to Errol Morris to Johnny Cash to Immortal Technique.

(and I share my birthday with two of the people in the list above.)

If you are committed to honesty and showing our society who we really are then I am moved and grateful for what you do.
Sounds Like: Sounds like damali panhandling for reparations, and asking paint mixers to match her skin color, and creating art from racist dolls, and throwing her art in the trash, and reading aloud from her book, and making 150 people laugh at her stories, and damali acting like a stand up comic, and telling you how much she loves Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.....

Listen to all of that and more on damali's two CDs "What did she just say?" and "LIVE: How to Rent a Negro." You'll love every second of them.

Get damali on CDbaby, Itunes, and all your favorite digital music sources.

Click the albums below:

Buy songs now!

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Record Label: find damali on CDbaby, iTunes & digi-music sources
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

happy new years - - places to give:

Hello to everyone on the final day of 2007! I bet you've gotten a ton of mail the last few days telling you where you can get your last tax write-offs for the year....i know i have. In Portland, the ...
Posted by damali ayo on Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:28:00 PST

New Dose and Now Artist

Hello all- Things have been very busy as the year draws to a close! This is (i think) the second to last email i'll be sending you before the end of the year. Thanks for putting up with the steady st...
Posted by damali ayo on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:00:00 PST

New Dose of Reality

Hello all-Things have been very busy as the year draws to a close!This is (i think) the second to last email i'll be sending you before the end of the year. Thanks for putting up with the steady strea...
Posted by damali ayo on Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:35:00 PST

A Community Funded Computer: Is it Possible?

Goal: An Artist's SalaryPressing Need: Replace Broken Mac Powerbook with Macbook ProDonations to date $1211.00Funding needed: $969.00 (says the store where the computer is on layaway)Donate now at ht...
Posted by damali ayo on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:45:00 PST

Support the Fight to End Racism

Friends, colleagues, fans and fellow artists and activists-This November brings the first semi-annual pledge drive at damaliayo.com. This is the first time I've launched a concerted effort to bolster ...
Posted by damali ayo on Sun, 18 Nov 2007 08:55:00 PST

Dose of Reality is Back!

Hello folks!It's time to get the conversation flowing. Here is the intro to the new format for my series "dose of reality"Stay tuned to this blog for more episodes as well as conversations and dialogu...
Posted by damali ayo on Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:17:00 PST

Tomorrow!

Hi Everyone! Thank you for your patience with all the emails I have been sending about this event. I am very pleased to announce: A Multiracial Mix of 65 People In 21 States and 3 Countries is sched...
Posted by damali ayo on Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:20:00 PST

Virtual Panhandling for Reparations

BLOGGERS!!!Get Your Virtual Panhandling On!Just when you thought panhandling only happened on the streets....here is a chance to take it to the blogosphere!Monday October 8, marks the start of the wee...
Posted by damali ayo on Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:20:00 PST

Almost Half the States in the Nation!

As of this post National Day of Panhandling for Reparations has 60 Panhandlers in 20 states!The performance is only four days away- THIS WEDNESDAY. If you still want to register go to http://reparatio...
Posted by damali ayo on Sun, 07 Oct 2007 06:15:00 PST

National Day of Panhandling for Reparations: Trial Run

Hello Everyone!Last week I was at the College of Wooster in Ohio, and some of the students and I did the "Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations" performance on their campus. It was AMAZING!! I offe...
Posted by damali ayo on Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:08:00 PST