Esperanza Spalding is an eaabibacliitoti* artist, trained and initiated in the tradition and lineage of North American jazz. His work interweaves various combinations of instrumental music, improvisation, canto, composition, poetry, danza, therapeutic research, storytelling, teaching, restoration of urban spaces and sanctuaries for artists, and growth in love as a daughter, sister, prima, niece, aunt, great aunt and friend.
He founded and co-directs Prismid Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization that creates and manages residency and workshop spaces for artists in Portland, Oregon (Prismid.org).
With his dance project “Off Brand gOdds” and the Songwrights Apothecary Lab, leads multi-week presentations, workshops, classes and research residencies in therapeutic arts. He received the Doris Duke Foundation Artist Award in 2024 and was a fellow of the Ford Foundation's "Art of Change" program in 2016.
*Of European and African descent, influenced by American cultures, resides in the indigenous territories of Turtle Island.
