Riffin & Runnin

NorthStar Church of the Arts

220 West Geer Street, 27701, Durham, NC, United States

Dasan Ahanu

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A self-described introvert with a very public profession, Dasan Ahanu is a North Carolina-based cultural organizer, artist, and scholar. As an accomplished cultural leader and poet, Dasan has appeared on NPR News, TV One’sVerses and Flow, and the documentary Poet Son, among other features. Through his work, service projects, and appointments, Dasan has shown incredible commitment to his home state, noting the creative artistry embedded in the fabric of North Carolina. He is a resident artist with the St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation/Hayti Heritage Center and co-founder and managing director of Black Poetry Theatre. He previously served as a founding member and coach of the Bull City Slam Team. He has performed and competed extensively across the country alongside the team and independently. A respected recording artist, Dasan has collaborated with many Jazz, Soul, and Hip-Hop artists in North Carolina.Dasan’s academic work focuses on critical writing, creative writing, hip-hop, and popular culture. He is a visiting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, teaching Hip-Hop and Black culture courses. Among the many great honors throughout his career, Dasan is an alumnus of the Nasir Jones Fellowship with the Hip Hop Archive at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. In 2023, he was named the 15th Piedmont Laureate, a one-year program that changes genres annually, for which he serves as a poet. He has published extensively, and he is the author of six poetry collections:The Innovator(HPJW Publishing, 2010),Freedom Papers(HPJW Publishing, 2012),Everything Worth Fighting For: An Exploration of Being Black in America(Flowered Concrete, 2016),Shackled Freedom: Black Living in the Modern American South(Willow Books, 2020),a brilliant uncertain rebellion(HPJW Publishing, 2023), andA Month of Sundays: A Journey Through Black Southern Christianity(Willow Books, 2024).Dasan is a southern writer and performing artist who uses storytelling to deepen understanding and awareness of what’s happening around us. He also thinks about how to present art in new ways, re-contextualizing the use of space while engaging various audiences. He partners with collaborators who believe in the possibilities of art and culture and are open to providing artistic experiences to the community.