Amirah Sackett

Amirah Sackett (dancer/ choreographer/teacher) has performed and had her choreography featured locally, nationally, and internationally. Amirah was honored as one of the first female hip-hop artists to receive the Jerome Travel/Study grant in 2008. She curated the international festival for women in Hip-Hop, B-Girl Be in 2009-2010 at Intermedia Arts. In 2011 she curated her own show called “The JOINT Project” in an effort to push hip-hop artists to create work outside of their comfort zone. She created the group “We’re Muslim, Don’t Panic” with dancers Iman and Khadijah, to promote understanding and respect of the female Muslim style of dress called hijab, to non-Muslim audiences. Since then they have been featured in rapper, Brother Ali’s, music video “Mourning in America” as well as performing all over the country. Amirah was honored to receive the prestigious Sage Cowles Award “Best Ensemble Performance” for the performance of her choreography “Mourning in America” in 2013. In 2014, Amirah traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh as part of "Next Level", a hip-hop cultural exchange program by the U.S. State Department and University of North Carolina. In April 2016, Amirah was honored to be part of "Caravanserai- American Voices", a Midwest tour of American Muslim hip-hop artists, including The Reminders, Dj Man-O- Wax and fellow dancer Mary Mar a.k.a B-Girl Mama. They spent one week in each of the three cities they visited, teaching workshops, performing, and meeting the local communities. Amirah believes hip- hop culture, as a whole, gives voice to those often unheard and is a way to uplift, inspire, and bring change to those communities that need it the most.