About Antoine

Bay Area native, Antoine Hunter also known as Purple Fire Crow is an award-winning Internationally-known African-American, Indigenous, Deaf, Disabled, choreographer, dancer, actor, instructor, speaker, producer and Deaf advocate. He creates opportunities for Disabled, Deaf and hearing artists and produces Deaf-friendly events, and founded the Urban Jazz Dance Company and Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. Antoine has received numerous grants and awards including the inaugural Jeanette Lomujo Bremond Award for Humanity, the Dance Teacher Award, Isadora Duncan (Izzie) for Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival, and SF King of Carnaval.

Antoine’s work has been performed globally, most recently in Turkey, UK and Russia. He has lectured across the U.S. including at Kennedy Center’s VSA, Harvard and Duke University, and the National Assembly of State Arts as an ambassador for Black Deaf Arts. In 2019 alone, his company Urban Jazz Dance Company, an ensemble of professional Deaf and Hearing dancers, performed for and engaged more than 4,200 schoolchildren. His shoe company DropLabs and Susan Paley just released an innovative product to help people feel music through their shoes. Hunter is curator for 2021 Bay Area Deaf Arts at SOMArts, a 2021 YBCA 100 honoree and is on the production team of Signing Animation actively working on inclusive films. Hunter serves on the boards of Dance/USA, BABDA and councils for CalArts Alumnx and Intrinsic Arts.

#DeafWoke, founded and led by Black and Native American Deaf host Mr. Antoine Hunter is a virtual consciousness-raising gathering online talk show. Created in response to Covid-19, #DeafWoke is a platform to amplify Black and Indigenous Deaf and Disabled stories as a force for cultural change and collective liberation.