Music

Zena is a singer and multi-instrumentalit whose work navigates the space between dreams, ancestry and memory in sound and imagery. Inspired by the Jaliyaa music tradition of West Africa, Zena has spent the past 17 years traveling in the US, West Africa and Europe studying the Kora, a 21-string West African bridge harp that originates from the Malian Empire during the 13th century. Learning both ritual and experimental forms of indigenous string music and storytelling with masters from The Gambia, and Guineau, she most recently completing an intensive training in Paris with Grammy award winner, and Kora virtuoso, Toumani Diabate of Mali.

“Listening to Zena is Hauntingly beautiful experience” -Curbed

“a culmination of that work, a genre-defying ode to what is lost and reclaiming histories carried by Carlota’s distinctive soothing voice and the atmospheric sound of the Kora” -Afro Punk

These teachings are the threads that have allowed Zena to combine the ancient past with the present moment, using language as both a sacred invocation of her ancestry, and musical inspiration, by singing traditional and original songs in English, Bambara, Arabic and Spanish.

Zena has opened spaces for Rising Appalachia, Climbing Poetree, Grammy nominees Amadou & Miriam and two-time Latin Grammy winner and former Minister of Culture of Peru, Susana Baca. She has collaborated several times with mythologist Michael Meade in presentations of ecstatic poetry, and most recently was a featured artist in the Rumi Concert: an ensemble presentation of poetry, music and dance with poet Coleman Barks, frame drum master Glen Velez, cellist Eugene Friesen and dancer Zuleikha.

“Stunning, cinematic work…” - SF Weekly

Ancestral Arts Therapy

“Psychotherapy for the Soul”

Zena Carlota, AMFT

As an Expressive Arts Psychotherapist & Registered Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, AMFT, the seeds of my therapeutic work are rooted in my life as an artist, storyteller, musician, dancer and folk healing practitioner.

My offerings as a clinician are woven from the threads of ancestral arts practices, Afro-Indigenous wisdom traditions in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as Jungian and depth psychology, which integrate art making, song, ritual, storytelling, movement & somatic exploration, dreamwork, food and plant medicine as pathways for healing and doorways to the wild unconscious.

Work with Me