Naima Shalhoub
A first-generation Lebanese-American, Naima Shalhoub is a soul-singer, musician, songwriter, performer and educator. Shalhoub's parents were born in Sierra Leone and raised in Lebanon, weaving her artistic influences at a young age with a myriad of sounds and cultures. Growing up in UpState New York, Naima was actively involved with theater arts, piano, voice, and was a selected vocalist in New York's All-State jazz and concert choirs (NYSSMA).
In 2006, Shalhoub moved to San Francisco to earn a master's degree in Postcolonial and Cultural Anthropology. After receiving her MA, Naima returned to music with a passion to tell stories through song--the joys, struggles and spaces between. She performed for the first time with a baritone ukulele in Beirut at the end of 2009, and began playing in the Bay Area soon after in venues such as Yoshi's, the Great American Music Hall, Union Square, USF, and the New Parish. Singing in English, Arabic and Spanish, Naima has been featured in festivals in San Francisco, Oakland, Tampa, and has been invited to perform internationally in cities including Beirut, Montreal, Kashmir, Delhi, and Cairo.
Shalhoub's role as an educator has included community organizing with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in San Francisco, facilitating workshops and classes at Laney College, UCSF and Sonoma State University, as well as co-directing a program mentoring young girls through the arts. She has been interviewed on radio stations including Bay Area's KPFA, KPOO, KZSU and recently received a role in the Golden Thread Theater Company's production of the The Fifth String. Naima is currently recording, performing, writing, and moved by unsung heroes and people's movements around the world.
For more about Naima visit:
https://readymag.com/directinput/naimashalhoub/
https://www.youtube.com/user/naimashalhoub
https://www.instagram.com/naimashalhoub/
Listen to the first 2 tracks from Naima Shalhoub's new EP Borderlands on