Meklit

Meklit is an Ethio-American singer, composer, and “cultural instigator” based in the San Francisco Bay area for the past 12 years. Her musical influences are drawn equally from San Francisco and from Ethiopia. Deeply inspired by the music of Mulatu Astatke (godfather of Ethio-Jazz), her songs shine with pentatonic melodies, Ethio groove, and a poetic core. This is immigrant music and American music all at the same time. Meklit is a TED Senior Fellow, and her talk, “The Unexpected Beauty of Everyday Sounds,” has been watched by more than 1 million people. As an artist-in-residence at universities such as NYU and Purdue, she explores questions of cultural activism, thinking about how music and arts can help us ask questions about who we are and where we want to go collectively.