Ja "Woke3" Tatu

Ja Tatu is a Nashville-based public and studio artist whose work explores identity, culture, labor, community, and collective liberation. With more than twenty years of artistic practice, he moves between the studio and the street, creating intimate oil portraits and large-scale murals with a shared purpose: helping people see themselves, and one another, with dignity.

In the studio, Ja's ongoing series I AM pairs oil portraiture with repurposed industrial proofs from Nashville's Werthan Bag Company, packaging once printed for agricultural staples. The series examines how identity is shaped, commodified, and preserved within economic systems rooted in the history of the American South. I AM debuted as his first solo exhibition at The Forge Nashville in February 2026.

In public space, Ja creates community-centered murals shaped by interviews, workshops, and youth engagement. His work includes The Legacy Mural, a 4,000-square-foot tribute to North Nashville; Voices of the Future, an interactive mural at the North Nashville Transit Center; and Project 48, a two-building commission for the Denver Rescue Mission. His murals also appear at GEODIS Park, the Nashville Farmers' Market, and the Nashville Food Project.

A graduate of Tennessee State University in Studio Art and Graphic Design, Ja is the founder of Norf Wall Fest and Live N Freedom, a creative movement exploring inner liberation through art, storytelling, and common unity. In the studio or on a city wall, his work preserves memory, creates belonging, and insists that every person is seen.