Ayesha Jaco

**Ayesha Jaco** (born June 13) is an American philanthropist, educator, and choreographer. She is the older sister of Lupe Fiasco, and has provided tracks across five of his albums, usually as the intro. She is also the co-founder of their youth empowerment organization, M.U.R.A.L., founded in 2009. She was an educator at Northeastern Illinois University's Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner-City Studies, is the executive director of organization West Side United (WSU), and the founder and artistic director of the youth dance company, Move Me Soul.

## Background

> The arts were a platform of expression for me, and I wanted to give that back to young people. I attribute it to the Ghanaian tradition of Sankofa: in order to move forward, you have to look back. You have to honor what came before you. From my family's migration story, and the legacy my dad and Shonuff Dance Studio left behind, it's my duty to tell those stories and take things to the next level.
>
> Ayesha Jaco to *Chicago Reader*

Jaco was born and raised in the East Garfield Park community. She and Fiasco grew up practicing martial arts, where she recalled to *Chicago Tribune*, "We trained at 63rd Street Beach and 35th and Michigan [...] It was a mandate in our house that once you were born, you studied the martial arts."

In 2019, she performed with her brother at Red Bull Music Festival *Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor* live for the first time in Chicago. She told AllHipHop, concerning the "Intro," "I didn't realize the impact. To me, it wasn't nothing deep. It wasn't an Ursula Rucker on The Roots or even a Lupe where you got to dig and find the double entendre and think about what this is and what that is. It was just spoken from the heart, raw words. So I didn't realize the impact that my role on the album doing the intro has had over time. Honestly, if I knew that it was going to play such a heavy role, I probably would've went back and wrote a little harder. I would've tried to get my Lupe on. Like, 'People are going to have to decode this.' But it's all good."

## Gallery

**@lupefiasco**: "Mama Fiasco is 60! Born in a small town in Northern Mississippi. Picked cotton as a child then moved up to the Windy City. Westside momma raised us in that drama. Made us into soldiers full of dignity and honor. A teacher, healer and provider with so much more to discover. Remember that heaven rests at the feet of your mother!"
* December 12, 2014
* Instagram
**@lupefiasco**: "A nappy head karate kid" Ready To Give You Them Hands since 1982...🥋 At the Jaco Paramilitary Camp 1986..."
* October 4, 2018
* Instagram
**@lupefiasco**: "It's nothing new. People be so used to riding trends and staying current they don't know how to behave around the authentic longevity of a polymath. They retreat to ridicule or point fingers or project out of despair because they themselves have only limited skill sets and a lack of meaningful disciplined experience. Just do you. I just make sure my Me does everything.

"Born Into This"
- Bukowski
* September 16, 2021
* Instagram
(L-R) Afrika Jaco, Wasalu Jaco, and Ayesha Jaco on July 2, 2019 at the Stony Island Arts Bank before the premiere of *Beat n Path*
Photo by Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune
## References

1. ↑ Hsiao, Irene (September 11, 2019). "Ayesha Jaco's Black Samurai Celebrates Her Father's Contributions to a Vibrant Community". *Chicago Reader*.
2. ↑ Rockett, Darcel (July 3, 2019). "Lupe Fiasco Goes to China: Artist Reconnects with Martial Arts, Lessons Learned As a Youth in New Docu-series". *Chicago Tribune*.
3. ↑ Kyles, Yohance (December 27, 2019). "A Conversation with Ayesha Jaco on Providing the Poem for Lupe Fiasco's 'Food & Liquor' & Their Childhood in Chicago". *AllHipHop*.