fayemi shakur

fayemi shakur serves as Arts and Cultural Affairs Director for the City of Newark. The Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs is the catalyst for participation, education, collaboration and development to encourage and support excellence in the arts within the City of Newark.

Since joining the Baraka administration in January 2020, Ms. Shakur has developed the City of Newark’s Creative Catalyst Fund, providing funding support to individual artists and small to midsize arts organizations. She also oversees the city’s public art program, creating opportunities for neighborhood revitalization and arts-based community engagement.

As a writer and cultural critic, her work has been featured in The New York Times, CNN Style, and MFON: Women Photographers in the African Diaspora among other books and publications. In 2019, she founded A Womb of Violet, a project-based collective that celebrates the work of Black women writers, poets and artists.

With over 20 years of experience in arts administration, her career emphasizes collaboration, cultural organizing, and community engagement as essential and meaningful experiences that challenge the way we see the world, ourselves and each other.