Kamau Daáood
Poet, Musician, Curator, and Educator
"I am a devout poet. I believe that the right words offered in the right way can be music holding us together. When we can speak the language of essence, we will be able to commune in a space miles above dogma and the confines of individual traditions. And we can develop into evolved human beings capable of radiating profound love, light, and service to others. I believe wholeheartedly that art in community is noble work that fosters beauty and meaning into our lives. That art is vital and necessary. I believe in the sacredness of breathing."
Biography
A native of Los Angeles, poet Kamau Daáood’s career began in the late 1960s as a member of the Watts Writers Workshop and the Pan Afrikan People's Arkestra under the direction of pianist Horace Tapscott. Daáood has spent over 40 years performing, recording, curating, teaching and producing, organizing and creating art in schools, churches, prisons, storefronts, libraries, festivals, conferences, museums, and galleries locally, nationally, and internationally. He has worked as an instructor and curator for the city of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department at the Watts Towers Arts Center, taught African American music at Cal State Northridge and Otis College, and co-founded the World Stage Performance Gallery with drummer Billy Higgins.
He has been the subject and featured poet in several documentaries, including Life Is a Saxophone produced by S. Pearl Sharp; Leimert Park: The Story of a Village in South Central L.A. by Jeannette Lindsay; and the PBS documentary Race is the Place. In 1997 Daáood recorded the critically acclaimed CD Leimert Park, (M.A.M.A. Records), winner of the Josephine Miles Pen Oakland Award. He is the author of The Language of Saxophones: Selected Poems of Kamau Daa’ood (City Lights Publishers), and among numerous honors and awards he has received the Association of Jazz Journalists Award for a Lifetime of Service; the Charles Mingus Award, presented by Watts Towers Community Action Council Cultural Affairs Department and Community Redevelopment Agency; a California Artist Fellowship; a Durfee Artist Fellowship; the L.A. Artcore Award for Lifetime Contribution; and the Charles R. Drew University Jazz at Drew Lifetime Achievement Award.
Photo Credits
“Leimert Park Signage located at Leimert Blvd. immediately north of Vernon” by Phatblackmama, used under CC BY-SA 4.0
