resume | industry comp | BOOKING

Imana Gunawan, a Texas-born Indonesian, is a Seattle-based storyteller, multimedia journalist, dance artist and creative director. Through her journalism and dance work, Imana believes in realizing a more just world for those historically pushed aside. As a journalist, Imana specializes in breaking news reporting and digital journalism, but has a soft spot for community-centered journalism and audio production. Imana currently works as senior breaking news analyst for Dataminr — primarily covering East, Southeast, and South Asia — and serves as deputy manager for a team of eight. She was previously editor at Breaking News (NBC News Digital) and producer at Humanosphere, where she produces/hosts weekly podcasts on community-based solutions to global poverty and inequity. She is a member of Au Collective — a dance-based nonprofit centering people of color, queer people, and womxn — with which she regularly performs, collaborates and teaches. She graduated from University of Washington with a B.A in journalism and dance. Imana is passionate about facilitating community conversations and has hosted panels for artists of color at events including the Artist of Color Expo and Symposium and the Womxn's Creative Industries Meetup. She was also part of the 2017-18 On the Boards Ambassador Writer’s Corps.

She was awarded the Pioneer News Group Award for Excellence in Journalism for her community reporting work, and was a 2014 recipient of the Foreign Intrigue Scholarship, which allowed her to work for The Jordan Times in Amman, Jordan. Her reporting interests include underrepresented communities and histories, the intersection between policy and culture, and the arts—issues which often seep into her dance works.

Select dance commissions — Seattle Theater Group’s Nights at the Neptune, American Dance Guild (NYC), Found’s Softcore Exhibit, Velocity Dance Center’s Next Fest NW, Washington Ensemble Theater’s ReSET.

Select artist residencies — University of Washington Dance Program’s body.space.time, Center on Contemporary Art + Shunpike’s Storefronts [UN]Contained.

Select performances — Hannibal Buress at Sasquatch, Chamber Dance Company, Alice Gosti, BANDALOOP, The Three Yells, George Staib (Staibdance), Mary Sheldon Scott, Amy O'Neal, and Gianti Giadi (GIGI Dance Company).

Select music and art video — Thunderpussy’s Speed Queen, ZELLi’s Solid, live show visuals by Anissa Amalia,  Julia Fisher’s Myco, Abbey Sacks’ Anchor.

Select published work (print, audio, visual) — NBC News, The Jordan Times, NPR's Next Generation Radio, Seattle Weekly, International Examiner, SeattleDances, The Seattle Lesbian.

Languages — Indonesian (native), Malay (proficient), Arabic (elementary)