Ayana Contreras

Ayana Contreras is the host of Soulful Strut at 2 PM on Saturdays. Ayana also serves as the Vice President of Radio for Rocky Mountain Public Media. Soulful Strut features two hours of 60s and 70s R&B and Soul classics and deep cuts. This feel-good blend of tunes will be culled from Ayana’s personal collection of 10,000 vinyl records which is sure to keep listeners moving and grooving on Saturday afternoons. As a professional DJ, Ayana has shared the stage with a wide variety of artists, from Roy Ayers to Nile Edwards & Chic to Gang of Four. Ayana is also a columnist for DownBeat magazine, and her writings have been published in the New York Times, Chicago Review, Oxford American and Bandcamp Daily among other publications. Her book on Post-Civil Rights Era cultural history, titled Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago, was published December 2021 through University of Illinois Press.