Kenyatta Emmanuel

Singer/songwriter

Singer and songwriter Kenyatta Emmanuel Hughes will offer song and story to contextualize and reinforce the human reality of our movement. Kenyatta is an artist and activist who has shared his music from Sing Sing to the Carnegie Hall, offering a full live concert the same day of his release after serving 24½ years in prison. Kenyatta collaborated with a range of stakeholders in and out of carceral spaces to impact the world artistically and socially, forming initiatives such as Voices From Within, which serves the children of incarcerated parents. His offering of music and message is consistent from his 2014 TEDx talk, through his presentation at the 2022 International Wellbeing Summit, exploring the beauty of life, love, and the human condition, reminding us of all that we hold in common.

Kenyatta Emmanuel is a teaching artist with Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program, as well as the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program.  He is a Galaxy Leaders Fellow, and is currently developing a curriculum for Racial Justice ands Abolition Democracy as an Artist in Residence for the Initiative for a Just Society at Columbia Law School.