Damali ayo

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damali ayo (born February 26, 1972) is the CEO of CROW Clothing, a sustainable fiber clothing company that gives its customers resources on health, fitness, social issues, and the environment. It also is one of the first clothing companies to use a sliding scale pricing system. Before opening CROW Clothing, ayo spent many years as a conceptual and performance artist focusing on race relations. She prefers her name in lower case.

Background

Ayo was born in Washington, D.C.. She has a BA in Public Policy and American Civilization at Brown University and a MFA from Portland State University in studio art. Ayo's art work has been shown at galleries across the world. She has spoken to colleges, high schools, non-profits and communities in 20 U.S. states and Canada about race, diversity, art and eco-living. Ayo and her work have been featured in over 100 publications world-wide including "Salon.com", "Harper's", the "Washington Post", the "Chicago Tribune", the "Independent (UK)" the "Village Voice", "Seattle Times" ,"CSPAN2's Book TV" and "The O'Reilly Factor"

Ayo has a life-long history of creative enterprises and social justice work. Her first paying job was for a clothing designer in Washington DC, Scotty Ltd. While at Brown, ayo was the director of the Women In Prison Project. This community involvement project placed undergraduate women as theatre instructors in the Rhode Island women's correctional facility. Ayo was trained as a leadership and diversity facilitator as a young adult and worked for the National Conference for Community and Justice, Rhode Island Branch, where she directed youth programs as well as led workshops for adults on race relations. After working in this field for a while, ayo began her career as an artist by bringing to fruition a work about an experience she had in seventh grade with a particularly racist teacher. When she had created the work she realized that art was the most effective way to reach people with regards to social issues. Her first solo show followed shortly thereafter in 1999. Since then she has explored multiple media to communicate her conceptual messages. She was an original co-founder of defunkt theatre in Portland, Oregon, founder of the Now Art Grants program and the eco-justice web portal Black.Brown.Green. She is well known for her book How to Rent a Negro, about race relations in the United States.

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Going Green

The July 2008 issue of Redbook Magazine reported that after a string of terrible on-line dates, ayo redirected her energies to "eco fitting" her house. Her activist personality led this change to take her career in a whole new direction. ayo started CROW Clothing in response to her desire to take a more holistic approach to social change. In 2008 ayo began heading up CROW Clothing full time.

Fashion, evolved, writes the following about damali ayo "Take one gorgeous woman. Add brains, a top-notch education, an enormous heart, and a sense of style--and what do you have? Damali Ayo. Damali is one of those people who is very quietly, very earnestly, and very effectively changing the world."

ayo has been sewing and designing clothes since she could thread a needle. A ten-year yoga student, she lives an eco-friendly life in which she composts, sheet mulches, saves rainwater and grows her own food and medicinal herbs. Her tips for eco-living are posted on her web site for anyone to use. ayo is committed to health and fitness, and finding natural paths to healing. CROW Clothing incorporates ayo's commitment to health, fitness, and social change into its model of "green."

CROW Clothing

Founded in 2007, and launched May 5, 2008, CROW Clothing is a sustainable fiber clothing company that purports to be "more than what you wear." To this end it gives its customers links, articles and videos on topics from social justice, non violence, global warming, recycling, composting, health, nutrition and fitness. It also believes in "co-opetition" and lists several other companies on its website that customers can turn to for eco-friendly clothes and accessories. CROW Clothing also is participating in an economic experiment of valuing the triple bottom line and sliding scale pricing.

An excerpt from the CROW web site reads:

At CROW Clothing we make sustainability, social change, health, and community a stylish part of our everyday lives. We create sustainable, fashion forward clothing combined with an interactive resource-driven Web cafe where you can come to shop, learn, connect, and enhance your life, your planet and your wardrobe. We work hard to bring you the best so you can be your best.

Conceptual Art

One of ayo's most well known works is the web-art-performance rent-a-negro.com. This satirical web site examines racism in the interactions between black and white people. The site employs parody and satire to engage the viewer in an artificial premise that one could rent a black person for their personal entertainment or to advance their social clout. This work, created in 2003, received over 400,000 hits per day in its first month.

An excerpt from the site reads:

rent-a-negro.com is a state-of-the-arts service that allows you the chance to promote your connection with a creative, articulate, friendly, attractive, and pleasing African American person. This service comes without the commitment of learning about racism, challenging your own white privilege, or being labeled "radical." In fact, rent-a-negro.com allows you to use your money and status to your advantage! In addition, your dollars go to support the development of African American culture...everyone benefits!

In 2005 ayo released "How to Rent a Negro". .

In 2006 damali ayo named her particular approach to art "Now Art." She describes Now Art as being immediate, accessible and engaging social issues. Much of ayo's Now Art is participatory and free for download from the internet. Ayo believes that, "Art should make you think and feel." She eschews art that is merely for "decoration." She believes that artists' true place is at the forefront of social change movements.

In 2007 ayo created Now Art Grants, to fund and grow artists making the kind of work she values. The program combines small donations of a large number of individuals then grants that money to artists engaged in social change.

On October 10, 2007 will be the launch of ayo's latest project, the 'National Day of Panhandling for Reparations'. This is based on another popular performance work by damali ayo, "living flag", where she sits on the street and panhandles for reparations. In this street performance, ayo collects reparations from passing white people and pays them out on the spot to passing black people. The National Day of Panhandling for Reparations invites people across the country to repeat ayo's performance in their communities.

Radio

damali ayo has co-produced several radio works. In addition, her work has been featured on several episodes of "Studio 360", a co-production of Public Radio International and WNYC New York Public Radio. Her radio work "Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations" won a 2005 Silver Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. She is a frequent guest commentator on NPR's Weekend America for their "Good News, Bad News, No News" segment.

Awards

2005 Honorable Mention in the Outstanding Book Awards from the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights for How to Rent a Negro

2005 Silver Reel Award from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for her radio work "Living Flag: Panhandling for Reparations"

2001, 2003 Drammy Awards, Outstanding Set Design

2002 Second Prize Juror’s Award, Northwest Annual, Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA)

2002 Individual Artist Fellowship, Oregon Arts Commission

External links

* [http://damaliayo.com damali ayo official website]
* [http://crow-clothing.com CROW Clothing official website]
* [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204833958&ref=ts damali ayo fan group on facebook]
* [http://damaliayo.com/book%20promos/pages/How%20to%20Rent.htm How to Rent a Negro book page]
* [http://rent-a-negro.com rent-a-negro.com]
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=9XnVwS6XgE4 damali ayo panhandling for reparations (street performance)]
* [http://youtube.com/user/damaliayo damali ayo's YouTube channel]
* [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4716/is_200308/ai_n17282836 "Don't Worry It's a Rental:Harpers Magazine published rental requests from rent-a-negro.com]
* [http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1274172 ABCnews.com article on damali ayo]
* [http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/14/ayo/index_np.html Salon.com article that first carried the story on rent-a-negro.com]
* [http://www.studio360.org/ Public Radio International's Studio 360 broadcasts stories on artists including ayo]
* [http://www.stories1st.org/flashstories/ Stories 1st Flash Story on "living flag"]
* [http://www.opb.org/radio/archives/2005/07/damali_ayo_on_r.php "damali ayo on Race" Interview with public radio]