Sariyah Idan is a New York bred and New Orleans based independent and internationally touring singer-songwriter, music producer, poet, dancer, theater artist, and educator. She believes in the power of personal story and interdisciplinary performance to transform individuals, communities, and societies.

As a singer-songwriter and music director she has rocked iconic venues like The Kennedy Center in DC, The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in NYC, and Panda Platforma in Berlin. In 2019 she was a Virginia Giordono Memorial Fund Honoree for performances of her debut LP “Breaking Shadows”, recorded in Los Angeles, Berlin, and Lisbon. Her follow up album “Glitter & Blood” and her first project recorded in New Orleans, released Nov 3rd 2023 and is a continued collaboration with engineer Andy Schlegel who flew to New Orleans to record.

As a music artist she is jazz and folk trained, hip-hop educated, and influenced by both Latinx/Caribbean sounds and her Jewish roots. Praised for her "ability to seamlessly combine a wide variety of disparate styles and sonics into a memorable sound all her own," (Tinnitist) she views honoring the sounds of both influences and ancestors as a form of cultural activism. Her music has been featured on Pacifica and NPR stations, in addition to college radio and online radio platforms.

As an artist committed to both creative and social justice community, Sariyah is the producer and host of the Songs For The People series In New Orleans that features four original artists in the round and benefits a different local community organization each month. She developed this with support from Music To Life’s Musician Changemaker Academy.

Recognized for her solo/documentary theater show “Homeless In Homeland,” about Jewish identity and the occupation of Palestine, she was given an outstanding achievement award by the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival and was a highlighted act at the Brighton Fringe Festival in England and the ONE Festival in NYC. 

With BA in Arts and Social Change from Hampshire College and an MFA in Music and Interdisciplinary Theater from California Institute of Integral Studies, Sariyah has facilitated workshops in her Poetry to Performance method at colleges, high schools, art centers, and youth prisons in the USA and UK. This method is at the heart of her own artistic work, while her workshop facilitation cultivates authentic creative expression for individuals and builds evocative community conversations.

In addition to facilitating workshops based on her Poetry Performance method, she does project coaching for other artists, and teaches online music classes in voice, guitar and basic music theory.