Aaminah Shakur (b. 1974) is an artist, art historian, culture critic, editor, intuitive, poet, and writer. Their visual artwork is primarily mixed media that combines collage, painting, and traditional craft such as embroidery, beadwork, and other fiber arts. They are particularly interested in the preservation of traditions and so-called craft that are often gendered and racialized. Their work explores the hybridity of traditional methods and materials with futurist methods and materials that represent the cultural practice of remembering history and carrying it forward into the future. Additionally, Shakur is deeply invested in addressing how art spaces, art writing, and art conversations can be designed to be accessible in terms of disability and fatness, and inclusive of community members who have been historically erased or appropriated from and continue to be neglected or excluded. Shakur graduated with a B.S. in Art History and minor in Museum Studies in May 2019 and a certificate in Visual & Critical Studies in August 2021 from Kendall College of Art & Design in Grand Rapids, MI. They can be contacted at aaminahshakur@gmail.com.
Simplified Bio:
Aaminah Shakur is a Queer, Crip/Sick/Mad, Fat multi-racial/multi-cultural artist, historian, culture critic, editor, and poet based in the Midwest (U.S.) Their scholarship focuses on issues of accessibility in art spaces and the ethics of representation of disability and queerness in art and popular culture.
Aaminah Shakur (b. 1974; Kalamazoo, MI) is an artist, art historian, culture critic, editor, intuitive, poet, and writer whose work is most informed by their multi-racial, multicultural, Queer, and Disabled cultures. They are a self-taught artist and freelance writer, editor, and consultant. They are also a mother, a healer, and a doula/birth justice worker. Shakur’s work is primarily mixed-media arts combining text/poetry, collage or transferred images, paint, fiber arts, and beadwork, with a use of found and repurposed items. The work explores themes of love, gender, motherhood, spirituality, sexuality, disability, trauma, history, borders, culture, privilege and oppression, abuse, freedom and revolution – and how all of these are interconnected.
Shakur has been writing poetry, fiction and non-fiction their whole life. They have self-published six zines, provided layout design for a friend’s zine, and contributed to several zines by others, including Outlaw Midwives. They are currently working on a new group zine titled “Make it Work!” about women and genderqueer makers, crafters, and artists. Shakur is also working to put together a book of poetry, beginning the process of collecting resources to write a birth workers’ guide to childbirth support for survivors of sexual violence, and working with Brooke Benoit to co-edit an anthology addressing the identities and unique issues of Muslim women artists. Shakur wrote book and zine reviews and critiques on the blog Book Lover’s Paradise and previously wrote book reviews for Feminist Review (now known as Elevate Difference). Other publication credits include the 2009 Speak! Radical Women of Color Media Collective’s zine & CD and the 2014 anthology Dear Sister: Letters From Survivors of Sexual Violence (AK Press). They have contributed copy editing to several projects, as well as sensitivity readings and consulting on various others.
Shakur originally learned how to crochet and embroider as a young child while spending time with elder neighbors, and was taught how to sew by the women in the family. As an adult, traditional Native and African beadwork and knitting skills were added. Shakur often combines these different forms of fiber arts to create unusual pieces of art for home and body.
Shakur also makes jewelry from found items, paints, and enjoys collage. As with their fiber arts pieces, paintings and collage are often combined with other elements to create mixed media pieces with unique texture and unexpected combinations of symbolism. Shakur is inspired by Indigenous peoples, diasporic communities of color, spirituality and textiles from around the world, and being a part of cultural preservation by keeping traditions alive and passing them on to new generations.
Shakur is currently based in Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA). They completed a certificate in Visual & Critical Studies in 2021 after graduating in 2019 with a B.S. in Art History and minor in Museum Studies from Kendall College of Art & Design. They are focused on issues of diversity and inclusion, ethics, and accessibility to ensure that art writing, art spaces, and art conversations are genuinely inclusive and welcoming to everyone.
Shakur has previously published writing under the names Aaminah Raheemah, Aaminah Hernández, and Aaminah Al-Naksibendi. A founding member of the SPEAK! Radical Women of Color Media Collective, board member for the Islamic Artists Society, and a partner in the Thaura Zine Distro (all dissolved), and former board member and Chair Affair Planning Committee member for Arts In Motion Studios, Shakur was also previously a planning committee member of the Avenue for the Arts and founding member of the Resilient Women Arts Collective. Shakur is also a contributor to the 2014 anthology Dear Sister: Letters From Survivors of Sexual Violence (AK Press). They served as a member of the TGNC Advisory Committee of the Grand Rapids Pride Center from 2019 to 2021 before taking a break & resuming that role in 2022, and as a member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Committee at KCAD from 2020 to 2021, as well as serving on the DEI’s Film Series Subcommittee for the remainder of 2021. They are currently the Accessibility Coordinator for the at the Grand Rapids Pride Center, since January 2021.
Email: aaminahshakur@gmail.com
ArtSmarts by Aaminah Shakur Arts Blog
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For all media inquiries, please contact me for proper attribution and compensation for any quotes in any work, thesis or published materials collections, or ideas, etc. aaminahshakur@gmail.com
There is a non-negotiable fee of $100 for reprints of articles. You must contact me for written permission, provide link to both my website and the original publisher by name, and pay the fee by Paypal to aaminahshakur@gmail.com. Permission will not be granted until payment is made.
Aaminah Shakur 