Iqua Colson

At the age of 19, an African friend remarked, "You are Iqua", the name given to female singers in his village and from then onwards she used this as her stage name, gradually adopting it for all purposes. Colson had already studied piano for seven years when she entered Kenwood High School where her teacher was composer Lena McLin, the niece and student of Thomas Dorsey. She auditioned and was accepted to Northwestern University School of Music after three years of high school. She later transferred to Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University where she completed her undergraduate music degree.

In 1975, she married pianist Adegoke Steve Colson, and in 1982 the couple moved to New Jersey.

Music

As a singer, Colson has been named a Vocal Talent Deserving Wider Recognition by DownBeat and recognized by Billboard for distinguished achievement as a lyricist. Colson became a member of the Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in the early 1970s. In addition to performing while in Chicago, Colson was a leader in several initiatives, for the AACM and other arts organizations. She has led bands at women’s jazz festivals, and has also appeared at many venues around the world in collaboration with her husband. She served as a member of the board of directors of The Jazz Institute of Chicago, during which time the annual Chicago Jazz Festival grew to a week-long celebration, and was a founding member of FEPA, producers of Chicago's Underground Fest and Blacklight Film Festival.

Colson remains an active member of the AACM, as outlined in a 2014 Capital Bop interview .

Teaching

Colson became a music team leader in East Orange, New Jersey's Washington Academy of Music at the school's inception in 1994. She then became the coordinator of arts programs for the East Orange School District, focusing on curriculum development and special projects in the arts to benefit students in all schools, and assisted in particular in award-winning efforts in the 5 schools which had the arts as central to their mission. Colson is also part of the K-12 Cicely Tyson School, a school and performing arts center which the district opened. Colson is also a member of the state of New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Committee for the Arts and served on the board of directors of the Newark Arts Council and the Montclair Arts Council. She has a Masters of Public Administration/Arts Administration degree from Seton Hall University and as of 2014 was consulting on several other projects that use the arts as a catalyst for educational and/or social change, including neighborhood planning and arts venue design as well as arts curricula.

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