Bio

Shani Jamila's career path reflects her commitment to utilizing the power of arts activism to create global social change. Her work and studies have taken her to more than thirty countries over five continents, a journey she chronicles in her journalism, cultural work and writings on race, gender, justice and diaspora.

For five years Shani has hosted and produced a weekly talk radio show on the Pacifica network (WPFW). Her Washington D.C. based broadcasts, which seamlessly fuse progressive hip hop and political commentary, have featured interviews with Susan L. Taylor, Dick Gregory, Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Dr. Rania Masri, Patricia Smith, Dead Prez and an array of other leading writers, artists and scholars. In addition, for two years she co-hosted WPFW's Black Soul Mondays, a program that provided an outlet for underground music and rare grooves. Her incisive and inspirational voice has been featured on many other media outlets including C-SPAN, California's Hard Knock Radio, as well as New York's Vantage Point and Night Talk with Dr. Ron Daniels.

Currently, she is the director of the community based advocacy organization Justice for D.C. Youth, where she coordinates The Prison to College Pipeline -- a cutting edge, culturally grounded mentorship program that supports the education and empowerment of incarcerated teens. Over the course of her visionary leadership, JDCY has recruited and trained 90 collegiate volunteers who have joined her in tutoring and leading creative workshops inside a local detention facility. Prior to accepting this position, she designed and directed The Art of Activism seminar series at Howard University--building a model that utilized cultural work to examine domestic social justice issues in an international human rights frame.

Throughout her travels, Shani has led workshops on African American culture and history at global gatherings like the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Switzerland and the World Social Forum in India. Her cosmopolitan perspective and eclectic experiences also inform her artistic endeavors, which include training in bellydance, photography and writing essays and poetry. She sat on the review board of the Yale Anthology of Rap, and has published her own work in collections such as Colonize This!; Race, Class and Gender; Sometimes Rhythm, Sometimes Blues; the Words, Beats and Life journal and The Encyclopedia of Sociology.

An avid supporter of initiatives that work to merge culture and social justice, she is a member of the National Cares Mentoring Movement "New Way Forward" brain trust, and works in an advisory capacity with the District of Columbia's Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. Additionally, she served as a planning delegate for the African Diaspora Heritage Trail in Bermuda and as a youth delegate at the World Conference Against Racism in South Africa. Jamila was the first alumni member to sit on the national selection committee for the New Voices fellowship, which allocates resources to rebuild the post-Katrina Gulf Coast.

Shani is a proud Spelman graduate who holds a Masters degree in Africana Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been awarded multiple grants for post-graduate study on race and gender at institutions including Cornell University and the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and Trinidad-- where she spent a year as a Fulbright fellow. She also received certification from the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Her work has received international recognition in publications such as the Trinidad Guardian and Express newspapers, the London based literary magazine Sable, and ESSENCE -- as "One of the 35 Most Remarkable Women in the World."