Pura Fé

Pura Fé (born: Pura Fé Antonia ("Toni") Crescioni) is a Native singer-songwriter, musician, composer, seamstress, teacher and activist. She is also the founding member of the world renowned Native American women's a cappella trio, Ulali.

Pura Fé was born in New York City and brought up by her mother, grandparents and family of women singers who are Tuscarora. They count eight generations of singing sisters from North Carolina. The family moved to New York from North Carolina in the 1930s.

Her mother, Nanice Lund was a classically trained opera singer who toured with Duke Ellington and his Sacred Concert Series.

Her father, Juan Antonio Crescioni-Collazo, was born in Maunabo, Puerto Rico, of both Taíno Indian and Corsican immigrant grandparents.

In New York City, Pura Fé was on the board of the American Indian Community House (AICH).

She currently lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

As an adolescent, Pura Fé studied and performed with the American Ballet Theatre, briefly trained at Martha Graham school and performed in Broadway musicals The Me Nobody Knows, Ari and Via Galactica. She also sang with the Mercer Ellington Orchestra.

She attended Lincoln Square Academy. In the late 1970s, she worked as a waitress at club Max's Kansas City in New York. Soon after, she began singing in bands and as a studio singer. She recorded jingles, commercials, backup vocals and lead on demos and recordings such as Good Enough written by James McBride.

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