Camae Ayewa
Biography
Camae Ayewa, professionally known as Moor Mother, is a composer, musician, poet, visual artist, curator, and educator whose work spans experimental music, free jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, sound art, and performance. Raised in Aberdeen, Maryland, she developed a major artistic and community-organizing practice in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Black Quantum Futurism with Rasheedah Phillips and Rockers! Philly. Her work with Black Quantum Futurism combines artistic practice, community research, oral histories, and theories of time to examine Black memory and imagine alternative futures.
Ayewa has released numerous works as Moor Mother, including Fetish Bones (2016), The Motionless Present (2017), Circuit City (2020), Black Encyclopedia of the Air (2021), Jazz Codes (2022), and The Great Bailout (2024). She has also collaborated extensively with other artists and groups, including the free-jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements and the duo 700 Bliss. Her work has addressed slavery, colonialism, displacement, housing, racial violence, memory, and historical trauma through music, poetry, performance, and visual art.
Ayewa continues to work across music, composition, education, and cultural organizing. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles. Her recent work includes The Film (2025), a collaboration with Sumac, and Future Present Past (2026) with Irreversible Entanglements. Her honors include a Pew Fellowship, the Kitchen Emerging Artist Award, the 2023 German Jazz Prize for International Artist of the Year, and the 2024 Chanel Next Prize. Her artistic and community practice connects Black queer approaches to history, memory, culture, and future-making.
BQW Impact
Ayewa's significance to BQW lies in her use of music, poetry, visual art, performance, and community practice to examine Black history, memory, gender, sexuality, displacement, and collective survival. Her work creates space for histories and experiences that have often been excluded from dominant cultural narratives.
Black Quantum Futurism is particularly significant to BQW because the collaborative practice Ayewa developed with Rasheedah Phillips examines Black memory, queer experience, and alternative futures through theories of time and cultural practice. Through projects including Community Futures Lab, Ayewa and her collaborators have connected cultural memory with community research and alternative visions of the future. Her work with Rockers! Philly further demonstrates her commitment to supporting marginalized artists and communities.
Notable Works
Black Quantum Futurism (2014)
A collaborative artistic and cultural practice co-founded by Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that combines sound, visual art, oral histories, research, and theories of time to explore Black memory and alternative futures.
Fetish Bones (2016)
Moor Mother's debut album, establishing her experimental approach to spoken word, electronic music, noise, and Black historical memory.
Jazz Codes (2022)
A major Moor Mother album connecting experimental jazz, poetry, Black history, archival memory, and collaboration.
The Great Bailout (2024)
An album examining Britain's role in slavery and colonialism and the continuing effects of those histories.
Learn More
Ayewa's official website featuring her music, current work, booking information, and artist materials.
Current institutional profile documenting Ayewa's position as Assistant Professor of Composition.
Information about the collaborative practice Ayewa co-founded with Rasheedah Phillips.
Official profile documenting Ayewa's 2024 Chanel Next Prize recognition.
Documentation of Ayewa's community organizing, Rockers! Philly, and socially engaged artistic practice.