@ayanacontreras

@ayanacontreras has been a member of Linktree for 5 years and joined in August 2021. The social media accounts linked to from @ayanacontreras are: • Instagram • X • Bluesky Besides social media accounts, ayanacontreras has populated their site with: • Mothership Connected: Book Signing and Conversation | DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center • NYE '26 w/ Kenneth Whalum & Ayana Contreras Tickets | @ Dorians, Chicago | DICE • SenoraAfrobohemia - Etsy Disconunt Code! • DJ Ayana Contreras at Three Top Lounge • RSVP for Sips & Beats by Vibes After Dark • JUNE 5TH - FIVE POINTS FIRST FRIDAY | Five Points BID • DOWNBEAT July 2026 Review: 5 Albums Lovin’ the Vibes • NPR Music : New Music Friday: 6/26 : All Songs Considered • 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Vibraphone - The New York Times • Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas w/ Selasee & The Fa Fa Family | Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom • Best way to see Black Chicago (and beyond) through a fresh lens - Chicago Reader • AESOP 95th Street Station DJ Booth, Chicago • About Me • Ayana Contreras | The Central Station Memphis • BOOK | Energy Never Dies | Ayana Contreras | University of Illinois Press • Merch • Guestbook pt 3 | Listening Party with Ayana Contreras - RSVPify • Events | BronzevilleWinery • Big Ears Festival Podcast: 1 - 2026 • NYE FUNKY A$$ DISCO EXTRAVAGANZA — Easy Does It • A Love Supreme: Music and Spiritual Expression - Big Ears • NPR's Best Songs of 2025 : NPR • BOOK | Mothership Connected: The Women of Parliament-Funkadelic • Amaro Freitas’ Sonic Homage to Nature and Ancestry • NPR All Things Considered: Miguel returns with 'CAOS' • 10/24 All Songs Considered : NPR Music Podcast • Chance The Rapper Talks Growth and Legacy - THE DROP • Newport Jazz Fest 2025 - Lakecia Benjamin in Conversation with Ayana Contreras | KUVO Jazz • Boogie, Skating & Benson - DownBeat Magazine • Newport Jazz Fest 2025 - Christian McBride in conversation with Ayana Contreras | KUVO Jazz • Listening to spinning records, and Red Line Extension opinions, at 95th Street Station - Streetsblog Chicago • DownBeat Magazine Critics Capsules • Lucía: From Mexico with Jazz • AESOP 95th Street Station DJ Booth • CTA and Local DJs Are Coming Back to Provide Commuters with Music and Good Sounds at the 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal • Fred Wesley & the New J.B.’s bring the funk to Pritzker Pavilion - Chicago Reader • Tank and the Bangas Talk Tiny Desk Origins & Creating Without Limits | JAS June Experience • Sacred Grounds, Gospel Sounds • New York Times: Baltimore’s Brandon Woody Channels His Hometown on ‘For the Love of It All’ • NPR New Music Friday: The best new albums out April 25 • Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf 2025: Episode 4 with Ayana Contreras • We Just Got To Do This: Adrian Younge talks uplifting legends with Jazz Is Dead - THE DROP • Roberta Flack on WJPC in Chicago discussing Japan's Love of Black Music (1978) • Mellow Dreamin': The Times of Drummer Isaac "Redd" Holt • Soulful Strut (my current radio show) | Saturday 2pm-4pm (Mountain Time) - KUVO • Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago (my book) • The War on Disco | American Experience | PBS (2023) • "Women Who Rock" Truth (TV Episode 2022) - IMDb • "Women Who Rock" Defiance (TV Episode 2022) - IMDb • Legacy: From Horns to House (2020) - IMDb • WGN Radio OTL #934: Chicago Style celebrates local fashion history • Vocalo Radio Gave Some Of Chicago’s Biggest Stars Their Start. It Will Go Off The Air Next Month • ‘The War on Disco’: How high-energy music made some want to dance, and others want to demolish • A meditation on the flow of being - Chicago Reader • Jazz as a Salve For Our Times | KUVO Jazz • Jazz Talks 2025 — Winter Jazzfest • NPR Music 124 Best Songs of 2024 • Save the Children - Cinema Chicago • 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Vibraphone • Theaster Gates and Ayana Contreras: The Sound of Johnson Publishing Company • Chicago Style Film & Fashion Show • GuestBook Playlist (classic Parkway Ballroom-inspired sounds) • it wasn't love, by Ayana Contreras • Carlos Niño & Friends - More Energy Fields, Current — International Anthem | A Chicago-Born Recording Company That Produces And Promotes Progressive Media • NPR New Music Friday: Nov 03 : All Songs Considered • Blue Note Jazz Festival Napa 2023 Highlights Jazz's many "Angles" • Yussef Dayes’s ‘Black Classical Music’ Shows “The Relation Between All These Different Stars” • "Rare Jewel" Color Footage Of 1948 Bud Billiken Parade Rediscovered • Chance the Rapper relives the ‘Acid Rap’ era with emotional United Center blowout • Gary Simmons: Public Enemy at MCA Chicago • Meshell Ndegeocello: A Virgo's Dreams Past, Present & Future • Kassa Overall on The Shifting of The Cool • Emily King's New Album Is Out: That's A Special Occasion • Chance the Rapper’s ‘Acid Rap’ mixtape is turning 10 | WBEZ Chicago • Indie Soul Icon Teedra Moses Sits Down With Ayana Contreras • Eddie Kendricks’ ‘People’ Was No Accident • DJ Ayana Contreras Logo T-shirt - Etsy • My Written Work for Vocalo Radio 91.1FM • My Work for NPR Music • DownBeat Magazine Author Archive • Finding Phoenix: Lakecia Benjamin Enters Her Next Phase (DownBeat Cover Story Feb '23) • 2023 Best New Artist Grammy Awardee Samara Joy In Conversation With Ayana Contreras • (New York Times) Terri Lyne Carrington's New Standards Feature • Five Minutes That Will Make You Love 21st-Century Jazz (NYT) • Here are 5 Chicago soul records you should know : World Cafe Words and Music Podcast • Left of Black | Afro-Optimism and Black Chicago with Ayana Contreras • Chicago Is a Nexus of ’60s–’70s Black Music (guesting on Slate's Hit Parade Podcast) • Charles Stepney built lasting cathedrals inside Black music - Chicago Reader • Vocalo Radio 91.1FM interview - Keyon Harrold: Shaman Of Sound • My DownBeat Blue Note Jazz Fest Napa Recap • Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows w/ Black Monument Ensemble at Millennium Park • Chance The Rapper At Vocalo: “You Can’t Thrive Without Community” – Vocalo Radio 91.1FM • The International Anthem Podcast • Reclaimed Soul (Vocalo/WBEZ Radio) • Other Written Work • Conversation: Kwame Brathwaite—Things Well Worth Waiting For | The Art Institute of Chicago • MCA - Music Talk: Nona Hendryx and Jamila Woods with Ayana Contreras • Ayana Contreras Q&A + Book Signing at The Silver Room [recording] • Imagining Chicago’s Future: A Film Screening & Conversation • Stax Museum Celebrates Chi-Town Soul • WTTW / ‘Energy Never Dies’ Reflects on Chicago’s Black History, Culture • Chicago Tribune / What We’re Reading: With ‘Energy Never Dies,’ Ayana Contreras has written the cultural biography of Black Chicago • WBEZ / Ayana Contreras’ new book is a love letter to the creativity, optimism of Black Chicago • Ayana Contreras and the Fight to Keep Black Chicago Alive | Chicago Defender • Chicago magazine / Ayana Contreras Spotlights the Power of Black Excellence • Weaving together memoir, music and history, Ayana Contreras’s 'Energy Never Dies' is her altar of dreams • The TRiiBE • Unapologetic Boldness: Exploring Intergenerational Connections in Ayana Contreras’ Energy Never Dies | Newcity Lit • Book Excerpt / To Write a Revolution on the Sky: On the Radical Legacy of Curtis Mayfield • Book Excerpt / On Stony Island Avenue: Boulevard of Black Culture