Pura Fé

Pura Fé (Tuscarora/Taino/Black/Scottish) is an Indigenous activist, singer-songwriter, and storyteller known for her distinct, soulful vocals and founding the world-renowned Native women’s a Capella singing group Ulali.

As the founding member of Ulali, Pura Fé helped to create a movement throughout Indian Country, which not only empowered Native Women’s hand drum and harmony, but also built a bridge for Native music into the mainstream music scene.  Ulali’s unique fusion of ancestral music, cultural roots, and message has left its mark. Ulali has recorded music for soundtracks, television commercials, has had platinum sales in Italy, and appeared at several events for the benefit of Indigenous Peoples and the environment. 

Pura Fé is part of the Silk Road Project, under the direction of Rhiannon Giddens, started by Yo Yo Ma and currently touring with the performances American Railroad and Uplifted Voices. 

Pura Fé’s solo career has produced six studio albums with her Native Blues and lap-steel slide guitar work. While touring Europe with Music Maker Blues Review under Dixie Frog and Nueva Onda French labels, she won Grand Prix du Disque from L'Académie Charls Cros (French Grammy) for Best World Album in 2006 for Tuscarora Nation Blues, and a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist for Follow Your Heart’s Desire in the same year. 

Pura Fé was recently honoured with the Dora Mayor Moore Award for Outstanding Music Composition and Sound Design for Miigus: Underwater Panther. 

Pura Fé appeared in and was one of the primary consultants for the Rezolution Pictures Documentary RUMBLE: The Indians That Rocked The World, which won first place at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Pura Fé commented on her experience with the documentary, “This gave me a chance to reenact a piece of the historical birth of blues music that no one considers or hears about”. Her knowledge of the Indigenous influence on American blues has profoundly changed our understating of early American history.  Former United States Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek) said, “We are systematically being written out of everything.” To have a platform to help bring awareness to the mainstream was crucial to Pura Fé and Ulali. 

Born and raised in New York City, Pura Fé was classically trained in dance and vocals. As a child, show business paid for her education by way of Broadway plays, truck and bus tours, television commercials, and jingles. She was raised by her mother, Nanice Lund, who also sang professionally, performing for Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert Series. Pura Fé later went on to sing with the Mercer Ellington Orchestra. 

Though she was a city kid, the influence of her grandparents’ mixed-race ancestry (Tuscarora/Black/Scottish) with at least eight generations of Indigenous women singers in her family lineage, continues to be the doorway to her musical creativity. Pura Fé is the ninth generation of singers in her family, who come from the North Carolina Tuscarora Blackman/Blackwell line (Deer Clan). She later moved to Robeson County, North Carolina and worked with the North Carolina Indian Cultural Centre and Tuscarora Long Houses and helped create song and dance troupes which traveled with Ulali. 

Pura Fé s father Juan Antonio Crescioni was Taino (Arawak) and Corsican from Puerto Rico (Boriken). He was a singer and his mother played Jibaro music on the cuatro. 

In her early teens, Pura Fé and her family became a part of the Urban Indian Scene through the American Indian Community House (AICH) based in NYC. AICH housed a collection of talented creators from Indigenous Nations all over North America. This is where she met what would later be the members of Ulali. With AICH, the group was able to take part in the beginnings of the United Nations Indigenous Permanent Forum. This brought the group around Indian Country, sharing their music and participating in Indigenous rights activism. Through the years, the group created a family network from all over Indian Country. 

Today, Pura Fé lives in Canada and is working on the film Reclaim My Skin with Screen Sirens Film Productions and Rezolution Pictures. Her latest album Ancestral Waterways will be released in 2025.