Shawnee Dez

Shawnee Dez is a music artist from Chicago’s South Side. Dez engages her audience through intentional energy exchange. Rooted in ancestral knowledge, she treats performance as a space to channel connections between past and future. Her sound blends rich harmonic layering with live instrumentation and digital production, carried by a dynamic, multi-ranged alto voice that creates immersive, dreamlike soundscapes.

Beyond the stage, Shawnee is deeply committed to community advocacy. Through SUG N JAM productions, including Soundtrack Sessions and the SUG N JAM Open Mic, she creates spaces where creatives can express themselves freely and unapologetically.

In June 2020, she organized the first annual Juneteenth Black Joy Bike Ride in Chicago. Held on the South Side, the event responds to systemic violence and segregation by centering visibility, celebration, and the power of Black joy within the community.