Mahogany Jones is a recording and performance artist, arts advocate, community activist and educator. A sensational performer and lyrical powerhouse, Mahogany embodies Hip Hop, femininity, spirituality, and passion in each commanding performance. Named the only four­ time undefeated Champion of BET’s 106 & Park “Freestyle Fridays” in 2001, Jones set about establishing herself as an emcee with a cause appearing on over 30 albums. In 2012, Jones became an international hip hop cultural diplomat when she was selected by the U.S. Department of State for its flagship American Music Abroad program to serve as a hip hop ambassador to five nations in Africa (Botswana, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Zambia).
She has since conducted hip hop diplomacy programs in Iraq, Kurdistan and Sudan with the nonprofit American Voices’ YES Academy program, as well as in Brazil, Turkmenistan and Haiti with the U.S. Department of State’s Arts Envoy program. In 2014, Mahogany Jones was selected for the U.S. State Department’s hip hop diplomacy program Next Level, where she conducted hip hop education residencies in Montenegro and Bosnia­Herzegovina.
The native New Yorker is also a writer ­in ­residence for Detroit’s largest literary arts education nonprofit, InsideOut, and is a facilitator of hip­hop based prevention programming with non­profit organization The Yunion. In addition to teaching, mentoring and recording. As a Hip-Hop activist, she launched A PURE Movement to empower women and girls and confront violence against women. Most recently Mahogany was named a Kresge Arts Fellow.