Shakira Elise Smith has been an artistic director at Ngoma y’Africa Cultural Learning Center for over thirteen years. She uses her talents as a choreographer and dancer to create traditional West African and AfroDances for performances and classes all throughout Utah Valley. In 2021 she appeared on an NBC trivia game show called “The Wall” and successfully brought home $90,000 which she promptly invested in mutual funds. Shakira is an experienced cardiac ICU nurse by trade, a Neuroscience graduate, Army wife, mother of two and recently she became a paid author specializing in afro-futuristic speculative fiction. She will be releasing an anthology through the League of Utah Writers next year.
