- Born
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Damali Ayo grew up in Washington, D.C. She attended the prestigious Sidwell Friends School on scholarship from grade kindergarten until graduation. From there she attended Brown University where she studied politics and American culture. During her time at Brown she also worked in community involvement, womens issues, and as a writing tutor. She first started working in theatre and performance at Brown University where she designed and directed the Women's Prison Project. Through this program college students taught theatre workshops to inmates at the Rhode Island women's prison. This program is still running today, and has inspired several other programs of its kind across the country. Though she had always been a creative child and person, after college damali thought she would be a writer. She turned to art when she had a dream about a visual art collage that would powerfully describe one of her many experiences with racism at her middle school. She created the work. When she saw the potent impact this work had on its viewers she became an artist. In 2003 she created the web-art-performance work rent-a-negro.com, a Web site that explores the commodification of race and black people. This site was reviewed in Salon.com and from there her work became more widely known and viewed by audiences world wide. Her first book, How to Rent a Negro (2005), was an expansion of the ideas this website, created as a how-to manual for renters and rentals to create their own businesses, or judge their own actions with regards to how they treat others. This landed her an appearance on The Factor (1996) and several other radio appearances internationally. Damali currently lives in Portland, Oregon.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Joy Patterson
- Though an advocate of green living, damali ayo is a NASCAR fan. she says it's the most non-eco thing she participates in. she secretly hopes one day that the racers will lead the nation in promoting a non-petrol dependent economy.
- When she was in 4th grade she made a 3-D replica of the White House. She was fascinated by the color schemed rooms (red room, vermilion room, blue room, green room) and decorated each room in her model to mimic them.
- Met her ex-partner Chris Ikonomopoulos while on a speaking tour, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- Named "Radical Artist: One of 50 artists, actors, authors, activists and icons who are making the world a more stimulating place" by Nerve.com (2006). She was #2.
- Corrected Bill O'Reilly when he mispronounced her name when she was a guest on his show.
- Art should make you think and feel, it doesn't have to match your couch.
- Art should make you think and feel. It doesn't have to match your couch.
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