about.

bio.

Azmera Hammouri-Davis is an interdisciplinary scholar-practitioner who reimagines public health, justice, and community well-being through the transformative power of arts, culture, theology, and embodied healing practices. A Fulbright Performing Arts Scholar, spoken word poet, musician, and cultural producer, she works at the intersection of creativity, scholarship, and systems change to advance collective healing and social transformation.

Born on the big island, and raised between Hawaiʻi and South Florida, Azmera’s work is shaped by a lifelong engagement with questions of identity, place, and belonging. As the granddaughter of a Palestinian refugee and Black Americans who fled racial violence in the American South, her scholarship and creative practice are deeply informed by diasporic identity and explore how expressive arts address trauma, restore dignity, and strengthen communities. Through research and fieldwork in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Palestine, and across the United States, she developed The Capoethic Method®—an innovative framework grounded in the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, rhythm and poetry (rap), and ethics to help organizations foster healing, belonging, and community engagement. She is the founder of the Break The Boxes movement and co-director of the Justice Serving Network at Public Works Alliance, where she strengthens the capacity of credible messenger-led organizations serving youth and families impacted by the criminal legal system.

A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Southern California, Azmera advises organizations nationally and globally on designing equitable approaches to public health, public safety, and community well-being through creativity, culture, and collective care. She is the author of Breaking the Boxes: Poems for Keeping Hope Alive When Your Faith Is Fractured and a contributor to The Cross and the Olive Tree (Orbis, 2025). Fluent in Portuguese, her writing has appeared in Ms. Magazine, Sojourners, Mondoweiss, and other publications, has been translated into eight languages, and reflects her enduring commitment to helping people and institutions imagine—and build—a more just, compassionate, and liberated future.