Victor Kinjo

Victor Kinjo (Victor Uehara Kanashiro) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, researcher and producer born in São Paulo with Ryukyu/Okinawan ancestry. He is a visiting scholar at New York University Tisch School of the Arts in the Department of Performance Studies and a post-doc researcher at the University of São Paulo Institute of Advanced Studies, with a project about arts, diversity and river regeneration. A PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Campinas (Gender Studies), Victor is the co-founder of cultural agency Água Viva Cultura e Sustentabilidade and Samauma Rural Arts Residency, a space surrounded by Brazilian Atlantic Forest. He is also the artistic director of Festival Navega SP, author of the book “Quem são Mishimas?” (Ed. Autêntica, 2020) and several articles in scientific journals about arts, environment and queer studies. Victor was the first Asian-Brazilian to be nominated as Best Singer (regional) at Brazilian Music Awards 2018, for his first album KINJO (MTR/YB Music, 2017) and POC Awards 2022, a prize for prominent LGBTQIA+ artists, for his second album TERRÁQUEOS (YB Music, 2022). He has been performing in several festivals and venues around the world and is currently working on his third album entitled LOVE & WATER.

Photo by Kim LeeKyung