Faculty Member Since 2014
Aku Kadogo joined Spelman College in 2014 as the Distinguished Scholar for the Arts for the 2014–2015 academic year. She served as chair of the Department of Theatre and Performance from 2016 to 2022 and currently serves as a senior lecturer in the department.
Recent News:
Aku Kadogo was named a 2026 Laureate of the 100 Femmes de Culture Getty Edition, an honor recognizing women shaping culture on both sides of the Atlantic under the patronage of the French Ministry of Culture.
"I am honored to be among the 100 Femmes de Culture 2026, Getty Edition, an award held under the patronage of the French Ministry of Culture. A fitting tribute to the women shaping culture on both sides of the Atlantic," Kadogo said.
Kadogo is an international theatre director/choreographer, arts educator, and cultural architect/preservationist. This multi-faceted artist directs highly energetic, imaginative, original theatre works and international, interdisciplinary projects.
Salt City: A Techno Choreopoem by poet Jessica Care Moore (Detroit Poet Laureate 2025) was conceived at Spelman College as part of her scholarship in 2015 and subsequently went on to be produced in Detroit, Michigan (20219) in collaboration with the Charles H. Wright African American History Museum with generous funding from the Knight Foundation and Joyce Foundation and again in April 2023 at the Apollo Theatre in New York City as part of their new works series.
She taught on the Music/Theatre Faculty at Yongin University (2010-2012) in Seoul, S. Korea lecturing and directing productions for the university and the wider professional theatre community. As Director of the Black Theatre Program at Wayne State University (2006-2010) in Detroit, Michigan she directed numerous works from the African American canon.
She has an ongoing interest in the proliferation of contemporary Indigenous dance/theatre in Australia. She was a long-time teaching artist at the National Aboriginal/Islander Dance Theatre (NAISDA Dance College) in Sydney, Australia, contributing to the current cohort of artists who now influence the national and international theatre landscape.
Her Broadway experience has been as an Associate Choreographer on the Tony Award-winning show RENT, touring Australia, China, and the United States, and as a member of the national touring company of Les Misérables. As a performer, she has worked in film, television, and stage, making her career debut in the original Broadway classic of "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf," by Ntozake Shange.
Aku Kadogo is a graduate of Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University. She divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia, Detroit, Michigan and Sydney, Australia.
Her work is currently featured on the All Arts Dangerous Acts: Spelman College documentary.
B.A., Gallatin School of Individualized Study, New York University
Theater Directing, Performance, Arts and Culture in the Pacific Region
Connecting the Dots: https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814333204/connecting-the-dots/
Night Scales by Chris Tysh: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9845988-night-scales