Idris Ackamoor and Cultural Odyssey

Idris Ackamoor and Cultural Odyssey supports the work of jazz musician and recording artist Idris Ackamoor and theater artist and teacher Rhodessa Jones. The artists create, produce, and present work rooted in the African American experience. They present and tour throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, nationally, and internationally. Cultural Odyssey provides performing arts training and performance opportunities to women who have experienced the ill effects of incarceration and HIV/AIDS, and leads a consortium of San Francisco African American performing arts organizations, with the goals of providing mutual support, building organizational capacity, and better serving audiences. Support of Idris Ackamoor and Cultural Odyssey aligns with the Performing Arts Program’s Communities strategy.

Idris Ackamoor and Cultural Odyssey supports the creation, production, and presenting of work supports the work of two Bay Area jazz and theater artists rooted in the contemporary African American experience. This organizational effectiveness grant supports internal capacity building to deepen the organization’s awareness, knowledge, skill, policies, and practices around equity, inclusion, and diversity. Strengthening an organizations’ equity-focused competencies supports its practices and outcomes and contributes to a Bay Area arts ecosystem that has examined and reflects an understanding of equity in the arts. Support for Idris Ackamoor and Cultural Odyssey advances the Performing Arts Program’s Communities strategy.

Cultural Odyssey supports the work of its two founders, jazz musician and recording artist Idris Ackamoor, and theater artist and teacher Rhodessa Jones. The artists create, produce, and present work rooted in the contemporary African American experience in the Bay Area, nationally and internationally. Through the Medea Project, Rhodessa Jones works in and out of prison settings with women who have experienced the effects of incarceration and HIV/AIDS. In addition, the organization engages in collaborations and projects that help ensure the co-founders’ artistic knowledge and legacy are shared with scholars, journalists, and artists.