Ayanna Heaven

Based in Brooklyn, Ayanna Heaven develops work as a DJ, programmer, and radio host nourished by several musical geographies. Born in St. Mary, Jamaica, she grows up in the 1990s dancehall context, then spends a decade in Atlanta as Southern hip-hop asserts itself, before moving to New York in 2010 to study ethnomusicology at The New School. This trajectory shows up in sets that move between roots reggae, rocksteady, dancehall, afrobeats, hip-hop, soul and funk, with a careful attention to the filiations between Caribbean and North American Black music. Ayanna Heaven hosts the monthly Sounds of Heaven on The Lot Radio and regularly appears on WKCR in Across 110th Street, devoted to soul and funk. In New York, she has played at venues such as MoMA, Good Room, Elsewhere, Nowadays, Public Records or Apple Fifth Avenue, but also in broader cultural contexts, from Shakespeare in the Park to Coney Island Reggae on the Boardwalk. In 2021, Ayanna Heaven received a New York City Artist Corps Grant, enabling her to organize Doing It In the Park, a vinyl soul and sound system event in Brooklyn. She then launches Good Ting in 2023, a series of nights centered on Jamaican musics and cultures. In 2024, Ayanna Heaven participates in a New York Boiler Room.