I AM BLACK HISTORY | Ayesha Jaco

Ayesha Jaco

Ayesha Jaco is Black History because her life’s work proves that culture, care, and community are inseparable. She has spent decades using movement, education, and leadership to heal communities, amplify voices, and build systems that improve quality of life on Chicago’s West Side.

Born and raised in East Garfield Park, Ayesha’s foundation was shaped by family, discipline, and the arts. Growing up practicing martial arts and immersed in creative expression, she learned early that the body could be both a language and a tool for transformation. That understanding became the cornerstone of her life’s work.

Ayesha is the founder and Artistic Director of Move Me Soul Youth Dance Company, an internationally traveled youth dance company headquartered on Chicago’s West Side. Through a fusion of contemporary modern, jazz, West African, and hip hop dance, Move Me Soul develops young people not just as performers, but as storytellers, leaders, and cultural stewards. Her work consistently centers identity, resilience, and collective memory.

Her commitment to youth empowerment also led her to co found M.U.R.A.L. (Magnifying Urban Realities and Affecting Lives), formerly known as the Lupe Fiasco Foundation. Through M.U.R.A.L., Ayesha helped create programming rooted in education, arts, and civic engagement, ensuring young people had both voice and visibility in their communities.

As an artist, Ayesha’s practice is deeply influenced by the Ghanaian concept of Sankofa, the idea that one must look back in order to move forward. Her choreography reflects an intentional study of history, music, and ideology, using movement to honor what came before while charting new paths forward. In 2018, she was named a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist, premiering works that celebrated struggle, resilience, and humanity. Her work has been featured by institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Rebuild Foundation, Chicago Park District, and the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies.

In addition to her artistic leadership, Ayesha is an educator who has served as faculty at Northeastern Illinois University’s Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, further reinforcing her belief that knowledge, culture, and access must move together.

Today, Ayesha serves as Executive Director of West Side United, where she leads efforts to reduce health disparities and expand economic opportunity across Chicago’s West Side. Her work includes supporting small businesses, advancing affordable housing, strengthening wellness initiatives, and driving collaborative impact across healthcare, philanthropy, and community organizations.

Ayesha’s leadership has been recognized nationally and locally, including honors such as the Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy Social Justice Award and the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Achievement Award. Yet her greatest impact is measured not in accolades, but in the lives changed through sustained investment in people and place.

Ayesha Jaco is Black History because she did not separate art from action. She used creativity as infrastructure, culture as strategy, and community as the ultimate measure of success.

Black History is not only about expression. It is about transformation.

And Ayesha Jaco continues to transform Chicago from the inside out.