tUkU: music + lineage

tUkU is a composer, singer, and performance artist, exploring the relationship between words and melody; voice as archive to sonically weave community. A Dora-nominated theatre composer and a poetic songwriter who excels at uniting text with complex harmonic songlines, tUkU honours the place singing takes in black woman culture. ‘I come to music through a powerful musical lineage, from the Bey family of artists, in Canada and the US, prominently rooted in jazz culture. ‘I have been singing with my mother and sister since I was a child.’  The recipient of a Chalmers Arts Fellowship, tUkU created a project titled diary of a salt. eater, to set to melody select poems from nayyirah waheed’s salt. for black woman chorus. In research into ways of being, tUkU recently participated in collective process work facilitated by philosopher/writer/activist Bayo Akomolafe.  tUkU is currently composing and recording her solo song set entitled luna’s re-. ‘More than anything, the experience of listening shapes my choices of expression as an artist and inspires my day-to-day movements as a human being.’  CATEGORY:WOMAN is tUkU’s debut as a film composer.