MUMU FRESH Brings Her Engaging and Empowering Artistry to the August Wilson African American Culture Center’s SOUL SESSIONS at August Wilson African American Cultural Center

Baltimore-born Maimouna Youssef, better known as Mumu Fresh, is more than an artist – she is a summation point where hip-hop, jazz, R&B, blues, spoken word, soul and world music come together in one amazing performer. Following a dynamic guest appearance with trumpeter Keyon Harrold at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens in September, Mumu Fresh brings her songs and stories of the struggles and strivings of Black and Brown folk to the latest installment of Soul Sessions presented by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), 980 Liberty Avenue, on Saturday, November 18, 2023, 8:00 pm.

In addition to Mumu Fresh, the Soul Sessions series has featured Stokley, Peabo Bryson, Angélique Kidjo and Meshell Ndegeocello, among others.

Rap legends Black Thought of The Roots, who gave Mumu Fresh her stage name, proclaims that she is “a quadruple threat,” and Common affirms that Fresh is “Groundbreaking,” while National Public Radio states that “Mumu Fresh is an artist that any fan of gospel, jazz, soul, and hip-hop needs to know.” A professional musician since she was 18 years old, Fresh released both her first EP, Black Magic Woman, and her first album, The Blooming in 2011, followed by Vintage Babies (2017) and her latest, Queen of Culture in 2021. Her critically-acclaimed singles include “Northstar” about slaves going north to freedom, the bouncy beats of “EMOG’s” with producer Saleem Remi and her latest single, “Forever.”

Fresh’s eclectic musical embrace began at home in Baltimore, beginning with her African American/Native American ancestry. She grew up listening to her grandmother, who was a gospel singer and to her mother who was a jazz chanteuse. Partially home-schooled, she moved to Philadelphia when she was 10, relocated to Washington, D.C., and graduated from the city’s Duke Ellington School for the Arts in 2002. She briefly attended the New York Film Academy and returned to Baltimore.

Mumu Fresh earned a Grammy nomination for her vocals on the Roots’ track “Don’t Feel Right” in 2007 and performed in Dave Chappelle’s documentary Block Party that same year. She’s shared the stage with the best and brightest music stars including Sting, Common, The Roots, Jill Scott, Bruno Mars and Burna Boy. She’s performed on six continents and at the Essence Music Festival, SWSX and Global Citizen. In 2018, she performed two memorable NPR Tiny Desk Concerts: one as a guest with the group August Greene consisting of Glasper, Common and drummer Karriem Riggins, and another as the headliner with special guest Black Thought. Fresh has also worked as an actress, and was a part of Black Thought’s Broadway play, Black No More and the Apollo theater’s stage production of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, Between the World and Me. Her music was spotlighted on the TV series Queen Sugar and Being Mary Jane.

Mumu Fresh contributes to artistic, Black and Indigenous communities, focusing on race, gender inequity and environmental justice, performing in prisons, and for many political and philanthropic organizations including The Congressional Black Caucus, I.M.A.N. Central in Chicago and The W. K. Kellogg Foundation. She was elected governor of the Recording Academy's Grammy Board in Washington, D.C., helped create a GRAMMY Special Merit Award for the category of Best Song for Social Change in 2022 and mentored a number of GRAMMY U-affiliated aspiring young artists. In 2020, she created “Muniversity Studies,” an online music education platform designed to teach aspiring artists how to work in the music business with independence and purpose. She also has earned an Indigenous Music Award and served as a Musical Ambassador for the United States and as an Ambassador of The Black Music Collective.

The renowned global citizen comes to Soul Sessions with a holistic attitude about her art from the myriad inventions and dimensions of her heart and spirit. “I’ve had a wealth of experiences, and I’m a whole person…,” Fresh tells Jemele Hill on her September 22, 2022, podcast, Jemele’s Hill’s Unbothered. “I’m a full expression, and I hope to encourage and support other artists to want to be the full, expanded versions of themselves, who don’t want to shrink into a box, and to give them a place to thrive.”

Tickets are $30.00 and are available at www.awaacc.org.

Major support for AWAACC’s operations is provided by Richard King Mellon Foundation, Henry L. Hillman Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD). AWAACC’s programming is also made possible by generous support from its donors. For a complete list, please visit awaacc.org.

The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. www.awaacc.org.