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Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, Ed.D. is a visionary leader and community organizer, nationally recognized speaker, and writer. A playwright, 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. She was a Theater Alliance Quadrant Playwright from 2019-2021, a 2019 Fulbright-Hays scholar, a 2015 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist awardee and a 2012 Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund Forty Under 40 awardee. She is the second Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD (2023-2026).

A Multigenre Writer

Dr. Ali-Coleman is author of the poetry collections For the Girls Who Do Too Much (2024), and The Summoning of Black Joy (2023), the children’s book Mariah’s Maracas and co-editor of the book Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture. Her work is featured in multiple publications, including Clarion, The Skinny Journal, two volumes of the book anthology The Fire Inside: Collected Stories and Poems from Zora’s Den, and the academic text Afro-Futurism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity and the Remaking of Blackness (Rowan & Littlefield, 2021). She is currently editing the book, Homeschooling Black Children on a College Pathway that is scheduled to be released in 2025 by Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, LLC (BFHES) and will feature chapters written by a half dozen homeschooling parents.

Dr. Ali-Coleman's journalism career began as a freelance journalist in the late 1990's, writing for community publications such as The Washington Informer, The Baltimore Times, The Afro, The District Chronicles, and East of the River, published by Capital Community News. She covered local and national news specific to education, youth and the arts. Throughout the 2000's she has written professionally for digital publications, including Ebony, Soul Train.com, Honey Magazine, SoulBounce.com, The Grade, Rompeand more. She has covered issues ranging from education and parenting to music and politics.

A Performer & Event Curator

A trailblazer in arts and education, Dr. Ali-Coleman founded the digital online space, Liberated Muse, in 2008 that went on to become a multidisciplinary arts group to produce and present events and more than a half dozen of her plays and multidisciplinary stage presentations. As a solo artist, she has produced and performed music as singer/songwriter, Khadijah Moon for over three decades.

Her collaborative work has included serving as a founding member of the defunct theater performance group, The Saartjie Project (2008-2010), and joining community partners to curate numerous performance experiences including Creative Creatives Creating (C3) which ran from 2017-2019 at RL Hotel in Baltimore, MD. From 2015-2018, she worked as a Poetry Host at Busboys and Poets in Washington DC. As a performer, presenter and curator of performance, educational, literary and visual arts programming, Dr. Ali-Coleman has worked with or presented her work at numerous venues, including the Prince George's African American Museum and Cultural Center, the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum, Anacostia Arts Center, The Potter's House DC, Alice's Jazz Society, the DC Public Library System, The United States Peace Corps and more.

An Innovative Educator

She has used technology and the internet to connect with learners and educators for more than 20 years. After creating and managing the online space So Our Youth Aspire she founded in 2006, Dr. Ali-Coleman co-founded the national education research group Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, LLC during the COVID-19 quarantine in 2020. BFHES has provided vital virtual support to over 3000 families, offering annual teach-ins and workshops. As a teaching artist and educator, Dr. Ali-Coleman has created and led educational programs for over 20 years at institutions such as The Hurston Wright Foundation and Montgomery Community Media (MCM). Her innovative approach to education includes the development of virtual media training curricula, youth mentorship programs, and media literacy initiatives. 

Dr. Ali-Coleman is currently an Associate Professor in English at Coppin State University. From 2011 until the COVID-19 global quarantine in 2020, Dr. Ali-Coleman served as teaching faculty, teaching Communication Studies and Fine and Performing Arts courses at area community colleges and universities, including the University of Maryland, Northern Virginia Community College, Prince George's Community College, Community College of Baltimore County, Morgan State University and Montgomery College. She won numerous grant awards for her work as an instructor, including a 2015 Prince George's Community College Foundation Impact Grant which allowed her to implement the Mid-Atlantic Communication and Media Arts conference. This led to her later creating the brand StudentMediaOnline.com and programming that has now moved under the umbrella of BWPSJ programs.

Dr. Ali-Coleman holds a doctorate in education from Morgan State University, a Master of Arts degree in Mass Communication from Towson University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). She is a professional member of The Dramatists Guild, The Recording Academy, and the Association of African American Museums.  A recipient of numerous grants and fellowships for her writing, performance, and teaching, Dr. Ali-Coleman's accolades include grants and awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, Prince George's Arts and Humanities Council, and Poets & Writers. She was selected as a 2024 Outstanding UMBC Alumni and 2023 Watering Hole Poetry Fellow.


"We cannot create what we can't imagine"
                          -Lucille Clifton

Award-Winning College Professor
Dr. Ali-Coleman is currently an Associate Professor of English at Coppin State University. From 2011 until the COVID-19 global quarantine in 2020, Dr. Ali-Coleman served as teaching faculty, teaching Communication Studies and Fine and Performing Arts courses at area community colleges and universities, including Northern Virginia Community College, Prince George's Community College, Community College of Baltimore County, Morgan State University and Montgomery College. She won numerous grant awards for her work as an instructor, including a 2015 Prince George's Community College Foundation Impact Grant which allowed her to implement the Mid-Atlantic Communication and Media Arts conference. This led to her later creating the brand StudentMediaOnline.com. In 2022, she served as teaching faculty at the University of Maryland in the English department's Professional Writing Program.

 

LEARNING-CENTERED EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, CURATOR & MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTIST

My mission as a creative is to transform spaces into arts spaces where people can learn and grow together. Art is transformative. My vision as an artist has allowed me the opportunity to use art to teach, mobilize, activate and bring together people of all walks of life. I will continue to share my words in communion with all-- from schoolchildren as I use my poetry to teach history, social skills and life lessons to seniors enrolled in a poetry workshop of mine, learning to articulate their thoughts and emotions through rhyme and verse. I travel this world with art as my sharpest and most valuable tool. I am a poet of and for the people.

                                                                              -Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman

Sharing Knowledge...

Teaching Artist, Curator & Scholar

Dr. Ali-Coleman served from 2019-2020 Scholar-in-Residence at Prince George’s County African American Museum and Cultural Center (PGAAMCC) where she also served as a teaching artist. She curated and presented her family history and that of four other families through the exhibit Flying Towards Freedom during her time at PGAAMCC.

As a teaching artist, she worked with students at Annapolis Road Academy Alternative High School. Annapolis Road Academy is one of two alternative academy programs in Prince George's County, MD with a primary focus on students in grades 9 through 10 who are experiencing behavioral and attendance concerns in the regular classroom setting. Dr. Ali-Coleman used a multi-disciplinary approach with the students, teaching the history of the Piscataway native people of Maryland and the Guinea people of Africa and their early existence in Maryland during colonial times. Using the drum as a centerpiece for learning and arts creation, she led the children in activities centered on identity, culture and communication, executed through designing drums and crafting spoken word pieces. She also facilitated a tribal drum workshop for families in the museum during the Kwanzaa season.

She has designed curricula for parents, educators and organizations in various subjects.

 

Homeschooling  Research & Community Work

Dr. Ali-Coleman homeschooled her own daughter off and on for 13 years in addition to being a researcher on homeschooling in the Black community. Her doctoral dissertation research was published in 2020 and is titled, Dual Enrolled African American Homeschooled Students' Perceptions of Preparedness for Community College. She crafted a short film about her homeschooling experience and her research that was featured in the 5th annual Black Sustainability Summit. Click the button below to watch.

Learn more HERE about her education group Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, LLC and the companion resource group for parents.