Biography

Taiyo Na (Taiyo Ebato) is a musician, writer and educator. His work spans two decades of cultural and pedagogical contributions to urban communities. He was honored in 2010 by Governor David A. Paterson and the State of New York for his “legacy of leadership to the Asian American community and the Empire State." The short film/music video to his 2008 song “Lovely To Me (Immigrant Mother)” was heralded by MTV Iggy as “the realest thing seen in a while.” The 2010/2011 collaboration albums Home:Word & Home:Word [Deluxe Edition] with the outfit Magnetic North & Taiyo Na included a number of chart-topping songs in Asia, and his “Artist Takeovers” playlist was featured on Spotify in 2017. His writing has appeared in Aperture, Poets House, Unmargin, Sojourners and Hyphen. As an educator, his areas of practice include transformative justice, culturally responsive pedagogy, inclusion and coaching basketball.