Building Bridges: Muslims in America: Mumu Fresh

Maimouna Youssef, who also goes by Mumu Fresh, has long explored her heritage through music, drawing from the influence of her African-American Muslim parents and Choctaw and Muscogee grandparents. The title track of 2011’s The Blooming is a rich pastiche of early hip-hop that includes sampled schoolyard chants, turntablism, spitfire verses, and polyrhythms. She began her 2018 Tiny Desk Concert by performing a traditional serenade in the Lakota language. Her steady voice glides adeptly from jazz to soul to gospel, earning her a diverse set of collaborators, including Common and Femi Kuti. As part of Duke Performances’ “Building Bridges: Muslims in America” series, Youssef will undertake a three-day residency that explores her early life and its impact on her identity. Saturday’s concert is rounded out with a free lunchtime talk, also at The Pinhook, on Friday.