Naomi Yang is a director, photographer, and graphic designer. She is also a musician, formerly of Galaxie 500, currently of Damon & Naomi.
Her feature length documentary Never Be A Punching Bag for Nobody, about a historic Boston boxing gym and its surrounding neighborhood, premiered at the Boston Independent Film festival in 2023 where it received the Special Jury Prize. It is currently available for viewing via streaming services. Her previous film, the dreamlike, narrative short Fortune was screened as part of Damon & Naomi concerts around the world in 2014-2016.
She was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant for Creative Individuals in 2024.
She has directed music videos for various musical artists including Steve Gunn, Lee Ranaldo, Waxahachie, Mary Lattimore, Meg Baird, Julie Holter, and Heather Trost, and for independent record labels such as Merge, Drag City, Matador, Mute, and Rough Trade. Her abiding interest in fashion and design has led her to direct a series of promotional videos for noted New York womenswear designer Gary Graham, as well as Los Angeles menswear label and retailer Virgil Normal.
Naomi was a member of the critically lauded 80s indie band Galaxie 500. The band’s recordings on Rough Trade records (Today, On Fire and This is Our Music) have continued to grow in influence and esteem since their original release. Her musical career continues to the present day as she records, performs and tours worldwide as a member of Damon & Naomi.
She is a graphic designer of books, music and other media, with an ongoing role as designer for the John Cage Trust. She has designed all the publications of her and Damon Krukowski’s experimental small press Exact Change, as well as the various Galaxie 500 and Damon & Naomi record releases and related ephemera.
She was born in New York City and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
INTERVIEWS
Recommended if You Like (2022) podcast interview