fayemi shakur is a writer, interdisciplinary artist, cultural critic and arts advocate. Recognized as a cultural leader, shakur has served as a Visiting Lecturer at Rutgers University-Newark Department of Art, Culture and Media, and was appointed to the Artist Advisory Council for Newark Arts in 2019. She has served in non-profit and arts administration for over 15 years, previously as Executive Director at City Without Walls a renowned alternative art space and gallery for emerging art; Marketing and Public Program Manager at Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art; co-founder of The Annual Lincoln Park Music Festival; and as a certified yoga and meditation instructor leading health and wellness practices in the city. In 2019, she founded A Womb of Violet, a collective of Black women writers, poets and interdisciplinary artists and published a risograph artbook featuring poetry and artwork by fifteen Newark-based artists. The collective also visualized and executed a ten story-high collaborative mural in partnership with The Four Corners Public Arts Project and muralists Layqa Nuna Yawar and Kelley Prevard. In 2004, she served as Senior Producer of the National Hip Hop Political Convention in Newark, which helped galvanize the youth vote and encourage civic engagement. As a cultural critic and interdisciplinary artist, her writing has been featured in national and international outlets including The New York Times, Hyperallergic, CNN Style, VICE, The International Review of African American Art, Nueva Luz Photographic Journal, and MFON: Women Photographers in the African Diaspora among other books and publications. She was chosen for several artist residencies in 2019 including Critical Studies Artist in Residence at The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Feminist in Residence at Project for Empty Space, and Artist in Residence at Shine Portrait Studio.