The Hurston/Wright Foundation provides services\, support\, and opportu nities that mentor\, recognize and provide a community for professional an d aspiring Black writers. \;
\nAbout the panelists:
\nC. Alexandria-Bernard Thomas \;is a Quee r Black Non-Binary\, award-winning poet\, teaching artist\, an advocate fo r Child Abuse Prevention\, the LGBTQIA community\, and Mental Health Aware ness. C. leads the popular discussion-based writer&rsquo\;s workshop\, Wri ting to Wellness&trade\;\, that uses poetry as a tool for healing when nav igating childhood trauma with Creative Suitland Arts Center and Heard. The ir work as a community organizer has afforded them opportunities to educat e adults on how to respond and react to Child Sexual Abuse through Darknes s to Light's Stewards of Children®\; and becoming a board member for To uch Me I&rsquo\;m Tellin (TMIT).
\nKaNikki Jakarta\ ,whose name means &ldquo\;great writer\,&rdquo\; is the Inaugural Poet-in- Residence for Northern Virginia Fine Arts Association. She is an award-win ning performance poet who has toured the U.S. and the U.K. KaNikki is the first Black Poet Laureate of Alexandria\, Virginia\, a 2022 Academy of Ame rican Poet Laureate Fellow\, the author of three novels\, two poetry colle ctions\, a memoir\, and a short story.
\nKhadijah Z. Ali-Col eman\, Ed.D. is a cultural curator\, community organizer\, nation ally recognized speaker\, and writer. A performance poet and producing pla ywright\, she has had more than a dozen of her plays presented publicly in venues throughout the country\, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\, Theater Alliance\, and Baltimore Theater Project. Sh e was a Theater Alliance Quadrant Playwright from 2019-2021\, a 2019 Fulbr ight-Hays scholar\, a 2015 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist awardee and a 2012 Prince George&rsquo\;s County Social Innovation Fund Fo rty Under 40 awardee. She is the founding director of Liberated Muse Arts Group.
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