Aku Kadogo

Aku Kadogo serves as Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Performance at Spelman College since 2015, following her role as Distinguished Visiting Professor in 2014. Her distinguished career spans international theater direction, choreography, and performance across Australia, Korea, Europe, and the United States, with notable work at Adelaide/Perth International Festivals and Sydney's Art & About Festival.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study (1976), where her interdisciplinary foundation shaped her innovative approach to performance arts.

Kadogo's research explores intercultural performance practices through extensive fieldwork in Australia's Central Desert, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Brazil, Cuba, and Indonesia. Her work synthesizes indigenous storytelling traditions, urban renewal projects, and Afrofuturist aesthetics to examine cultural identity, environmental relationships, and social transformation. Key methodologies include devising original works through community collaboration and cross-cultural exchange.

Her scholarly trajectory reveals consistent engagement with Black artistic expression and decolonial performance frameworks, particularly evident in her documentation of Detroit's Heidelberg Project and contributions to Afro-Centric theater theory.

Major recognitions include:

• OBIE Award for original Broadway production of "for colored girls who considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" (1976)
• National Performance Network Artist of Color Residency Grant supporting Will Power's "FLOW" (2008)

As an educator, she pioneered World Performance Studies curricula at Wayne State University and Yongin University, mentoring students through initiatives like the LINKS-funded Australia exchange program. Her community leadership includes founding the Connect the Dots Festival at Detroit's Heidelberg Project and shaping programming as founding MOCAD Committee Member.

Kadogo maintains dynamic artistic partnerships with Tyree Guyton, Jessica Care Moore, and Mike Ellison while directing for institutions including Belvoir St Theatre, Heidelberg Project, and international festivals.