NKEIRUKA ORUCHE

2026 SOZO FELLOW
CULTURAL PRODUCER, MULTIDISCIPLINARY CREATIVE, WRITER
OAKLAND, CA

Nkeiruka Oruche, a multimedia creative, cultural producer, and writer, founded and directs Afro Urban Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to boosting art, media, and the tough-but-necessary conversations of the African diaspora. She created and directed ‘Mixtape of the Dead & Gone #1’- Ahamefula’, a shit-just-got-real dance-theater comedy about life, death, igbo cosmology, and what the fuck comes next. She is co-founder and cultural steward of BoomShake, a social justice and music liberation organization. In 2023, she was on the creative team of ‘Nollywood Dreams’ at SF Playhouse. 

Oruche is a Dance/USA Artist Fellow, Kikwetu Honors Awardee, a NYFA Immigrant Artist Fellow, and YBCA 100 Honoree. She has received awards from Creative Work Fund, MAP Fund, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, and California Arts Council. Her work has been featured in BBC Africa, Goethe-Institut, Fjord Review, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Coal City University-Enugu, and Oakland Museum of California.

Nkeiruka’s immersion into performance began as a child from her ancestral hometown Amichi and learning popular dance from her Aunt Obiageli. Currently, Nkeiruka is working on ‘Obi gbawara’m//My Heart Shattered or What happens after I die?’, a cultural documentation & multimedia project exploring the art and performance of grief in Igbo traditions.