Candice Hoyes

Candice Hoyes
Boca Raton, FL
Grant amount: $14,300

About the Artist

Candice Hoyes is poised to “shape the artist-cum-activist role." (NPR) In 2020, she released “Zora’s Moon,” the first single of her mostly self-penned upcoming EP. This jaunty retro soul escapade is her response to this moment: an ode to Black girlhood. Candice brings otherworldly vocalism to her new single, "Waiting for the World (Tired)," which features the 1930 poem "Tired" by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes set in a lyrical Afro Futuristic soundscape.  Candice is a 2020 winner of the inaugural NYC Women’s Fund for Film, Music and Media. She has performed with, opened for and recorded with artists ranging from Lin Manuel Miranda to Chaka Khan to Wynton Marsalis. Candice was commissioned by the National Black Theater and Michelle Obama's When We All Vote to co-create a new work to empower Black voters leading into the 2020 US Presidential election. 

​Candice returns to Carnegie Hall, Caramoor, and more this summer. Recent performances include 2021 We Out Here Fest (UK), NYC JazzFest, Nublu JazzFest, the Public Theater, and the Blue Note. As an activist, she collaborates with the Feminist Press, Well-Read Black Girl, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in Law, Harlem Arts Alliance, Women in Music, and numerous grassroots organizations. She has produced her feminist performance lecture series for Jazz at Lincoln Center and CUNY for three consecutive seasons. Candice has written for Shondaland, Blavity and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and spoken and performed at TED HQ.

Her brand new project is co-written with GRAMMY-award winning pianist, Sullivan Fortner (Paul Simon, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Dianne Reeves). The project is produced by GRAMMY-award winning multi-instrumentalist Casey Benjamin (Anderson .Paak, Robert Glasper, Q-Tip) and features performances by vibraphonist Joel Ross (Marquis Hill, Makaya McCraven), trumpeter Keyon Harrold (Nas), Chiara Fasi (Solange). Candice's family hails from Jamaica, and she is an honors graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology and African American Studies and Columbia Law School.