Halima Edozie-Akinlade
Adjunct Instructor
Born in New Jersey and raised by her mother between Lagos and London, Halima Edozie-Akinlade draws from a tri-continental well. As an only child, she learned to blend introspective periods spent alone with the collaborative day camps and community programs she attended for theatre and music. As early as primary school, she remembers developing processes for bringing musicians together, continually from a place of creation. From early explorations of folk and piano to later studies of jazz and R&B, Halima's career has evolved, making pit stops in Pop-punk, neo-soul, and electronic along the way. Now, her sound pulls unapologetically from a broad musical spectrum, nodding sonically to those defining experiences and pushing forward toward a more pointed exploration of self.
As a result, By 21, Halima launched her label, One Percent Genius, and released self-produced singles garnering over 5 million cumulative streams. Since then, her work has been featured in Spotify's Pollen and New Music Friday, Apple Music's Feels, Pitchfork's What's Good playlists, and other outlets, including The Fader, BBC Radio 1Xtra, and Lyrical Lemonade. Beyond her independent work, Halima has made a conscious effort to expand and nourish her collaborative catalog. Recently, she scored Christian Ghosn's award-winning short film 'Violent Nights.'
Outside of her creative work, Halima is also a co-founder and active member of FACTORY, a Brooklyn women's collective that meets weekly to navigate life in the music industry, practice community therapy, and celebrate chosen family, which she describes as a process of "adding structures to unstructured life." Altogether, Halima's work embodies the intersection of self-discovery, community, and the complexity of life's connections, across mediums.