Today we’d like to introduce you to Asha Hadiya Moore-Smith.
Hi Asha Hadiya, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Asha Moore-Smith but I also just go by my first and middle name, Asha Hadiya. I am a vocalist, musician, and multimedia producer. I am a first-generation native Washingtonian and grew up going to DC public schools. I was raised and reared by amazing parents, one being a public school teacher of world history and the other being a social and environmental justice activist. My mother is from Philly, and my dad is from St. Louis. Growing up, I was immersed in the arts. I took piano lessons from about 6-12 years old and attended Fillmore Arts Camp almost every summer. As a kid, I was obsessed with all things Motown and some my favorite artists growing up were Earth Wind and Fire, Teena Marie, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Angela Winbush, The Emotions, The Impressions, Bob Marley and The Wailers, The Jackson Five, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder to name a few. My love for singing and performing started in elementary school when I was in school plays such as Guys and Dolls and Fiddler on the Roof. I had an amazing 5th grade teacher, Ms. Anthony who selected me to compete in the Frederick Douglass Oratorical Contest sponsored by the National Park Service. She spent every Saturday leading up to the performance day coaching me on how to emote and really helped me with my public speaking skills at a young age. I performed Douglass’ speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” and won second place. Although these are experiences from my formative years, they played a huge role in shaping who I am today and my career passions. While I attended a very academic/college prep focused high school, I thankfully was still an active participant in performing and visual arts training programs such as Jones Haywood School of Dance, the Washington Youth Choir, and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. I’ve always loved fashion and style, so after graduating high school, I went to Drexel University to study fashion design and merchandising. However, after one year, I left to pursue music and the performing arts in New York City. After a few years and one great semester at The New School, I moved back home to Washington D.C. and began attending the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), enrolling as a music performance major. I studied voice, piano, music theory, ear training and sight singing, orchestration, and history of African American music. Due to some temporary vocal health challenges, I switched my major to digital media with my concentrations being in broadcast and multimedia journalism. Despite switching majors, I remained a music student, keeping up with my voice and piano lessons, while also remaining an active member of the UDC Chorale. I also performed in a few student recitals, with the most recent one being last spring during my last semester at UDC. I used the skills I learned as a digital media student to develop a documentary on my dad, Damu Smith who passed away from colon cancer when I was 13 years old. I filmed and edited a short video documentary about his work as a pioneering environmental justice activist who was one of the first to fight against toxic air pollution terrorizing poor black communities, especially in places like Cancer Alley Louisiana. It is true that God wastes nothing, because although I shifted my focus to digital media, I experienced many amazing opportunities as a result of His temporary redirection. In 2023, I was selected to represent UDC at a White House HBCU Student Press briefing. In 2024, I became an Alliance for Women in Media student foundation fellow, attended the Gracie’s Leadership Awards luncheon in New York City, helped to direct a music video on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, and ran a teleprompter for legendary sportscaster James Brown when he visited UDC. In 2025, I was selected as an Impressions of Beauty FuturechangemakeHER along with 6 incredible women, and hosted fireside chat interviews for UDC’s Founder’s Day. I have also had the opportunity to share my journey as a student twice on a show called “DMV Zone” on our local Fox 5 DC news station. One of the other highlights of my educational experience is when I traveled to Ghana on a study abroad scholarship with UDC’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion during what is known as the Year of Return (2019). All of these learning opportunities and experiences have shaped me as an artist who is also in the media profession. I am so grateful for every single one of them. My journey in school felt like such a long process at times, but each year in school I gained more skills and insight about music and digital media along the way. I graduated summa cum laude from UDC in May 2025 with my BA in digital media, all honor and glory to God.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Although it is a blessed road, challenges have been a part of it but thankfully God walks with me, helping me to overcome every step of the way by His grace. My dad passed away from stage 4 colon cancer when I was 13 years old. I don’t think challenging is even the word for dealing with his passing, especially because I was in middle school on my way to high school at the time. It was a lot to process. I didn’t fully process it until I became an adult. I didn’t even get grief counseling until I was an adult because I didn’t know that was an option to help me heal. Experiencing the grief of my dad’s passing while becoming a teenager was very difficult on top of all of the other things preteens/teenagers go through in school such as bullying, extracurricular activities, and staying on top of school work. Thankfully I didn’t have to go through it alone, with my wonderful mother, and other close family members being so loving and supportive along the way. As they say, it takes a village, and I am so grateful to have such a loving, supportive family as well as the community at-large.
During my time as a student at UDC, I had two major surgeries and had to have another one about a month after graduating. The first one was when it was discovered that I had nodules on my vocal cords while I was still a music performance major studying voice. I had an awesome ear nose and throat doctor (ENT), who put me in voice therapy to try and avoid surgery by shrinking the nodules naturally. I was on vocal rest for about 8 weeks before returning to the ENT. This was challenging as a student because I had to put a pause on the main thing I was studying in school, singing. I also had to communicate with my professors by writing things down, or using the notes feature on my phone. After 8 weeks of vocal rest, I returned to the ENT, and while my vocal cords were looking better, the nodules weren’t completely gone, so she advised me that the best course of action was to have them surgically removed. Of course, I was saddened by this, but I trusted God to bring me through, and He did. I had the surgery and my voice healed very well. I continued working with an amazing voice therapist for about 2-3 months after surgery at Georgetown University Hospital. I slowly began taking voice lessons again and even though my voice completely healed, I still ended up switching my major to digital media due to lack of confidence in my singing voice and how it would be perceived when I started doing recitals. However, God is faithful, because with faith, patience, and a wonderful supportive voice teacher, Professor Butler, I eventually began singing in front of people again. I started singing in UDC Chorale and finally felt ready to start performing in music program student recitals. I also performed in a recital during my last semester before graduating which felt like such a full circle moment. I had another major but successful surgery while completing my degree a few years after having vocal cord surgery. It was a challenge because I was beginning one of the spring semesters and had to heal while also trying to stay on top of my studies. I also felt the pressure to return back to school in person sooner than the suggested recovery time. In retrospect, that experience taught me that I needed to overcome being a people pleaser. However, even though I could’ve used more time to rest, everything healed fully well, glory to God.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a vocalist, musician, and multimedia producer. Although I studied journalism, I don’t consider myself to be a journalist. I am an artist who uses journalism as a tool to inform my creative work. I sing, play piano, and am a documentary filmmaker. I sometimes describe myself as a multidisciplinary artist, because I have studied in different areas of the arts, such as music, visual, and dance. Most recently, my painting “Singing Firebird” was published in the 2025-2026 January edition of The Firebird Quill, UDC’s Journal of Literature and Art. It is the first time I have had any visual art published. Musically, I released my first song “Still Me”, in 2024. It is available on all streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. It is a song I co-produced and wrote with a fellow artist and UDC alumni, J. Loft. I also designed the cover art for the song. We have started performing it live at local events here in the District, along with a very talented violinist, Djrylak. I also perform as an alumna member of the UDC Chorale. I love performing with UDC Chorale, because I believe it really helps to train my ear as a vocalist, as well as blend with other singers. Not to mention we get to learn and perform historic pieces of music In summer 2025, we recorded an album under the direction of Johnny Butler III singing the music of Phillip McIntyre, who was a prominent musician and composer in the Washington DC area. On the media side, I am a host, interviewer, and freelance video editor. Although editing is tedious, it is a very valuable skill to have as a filmmaker and artist. I have a specific vision for certain film projects, and it is always worth it to see it all come together beautifully in the final edit, especially when you have a hand in it. I have interned with UDC-TV, WHUR 96.3FM, and WHBC 96.3 HD3. I have an article published on WHUR’s website entitled “6 Little Known Black History Landmarks to Visit in Washington D.C.” that I wrote during my internship. I have been featured in two books, “My Beautiful Black Hair” and “My Hair Is Like Yours”, both authored by St. Clair Detrick-Jules. The latter can currently be found in the gift shop of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. I have also done print modeling for companies such as Vontelle Eyewear, sporting their Kente Collection.
What does success mean to you?
I define success as doing everything God has called me to do, choosing to walk in love and faith over fear, and influencing others in a positive way. I also define success as studying the greats and becoming greater. Success is remaining humble, patient, kind, gentle, and grounded no matter how successful you become. Success is also building and sharing generational wealth not only financially, but spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Success is using the talents God has gifted us with, and making more talents, as Jesus Christ taught about in the Parable of the Talents.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamashahadiya/ and https://www.instagram.com/ashamooresmith/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ashamoore-smith
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/DzgfIXTC0XA?si=OVpHuXPSb54cKeR8
- Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/ashahadiya
