Andrea Ambam

Andrea Ambam is a performing artist born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri but whose roots sprout from Cameroon, Africa. Receiving her  Bachelor of Arts from Western Kentucky University in Psychology and Criminology, Andrea intersects spaces where performance and critical discussion pulsate. In her time at Western Kentucky University, Andrea discovered her passion for art and activism through speech and debate, where she received multiple national championships and was awarded top speaker in the nation 3 times for critical performances and speeches.

As an artist and activist, Andrea entwines both storytelling and truth telling through performances of poetry, monologues, personal narratives and more- to raise the volume on and to encourage mobilization in social justice movements. Andrea’s past works include, but are not limited to, performances used to bring light to policies shaming EBT recipients, explore Transatlantic trauma in black bodies, argue for Truth and Reconciliation processes in America, encourage the prison abolition movement, and present a theatrical memorial to Sandra Bland.

In academia, Andrea has polarizing beginnings. In 2017, after co-authoring a student government resolution to support reparations for black students in the form of free tuition, Andrea found herself in live debate with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. The online harassment and attention that followed led her to engage in a rhetorical auto-ethnographic analysis entitled “From the Black Girl on the Front Lines.” Intersecting storytelling with rhetorical criticism, Andrea presented her work at the 104th Annual National Communication Association Convention in 2018.

Read Andrea's Humans of APP feature