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Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, Ed.D. is is the second Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD (2023-2026). She is a playwright with 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. 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.
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 (IAP, 2022). Her work is featured in multiple publications, including the 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. She is founder of the multidisciplinary arts group, Liberated Muse, the education research group, Black Family Homeschool Educators & Scholars, LLC (BFHES) and the 501(c)3 nonprofit, Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice, Inc. She has been featured in the Washington Post, the Guardian, LA Times, CNN, CBS, NBC, and more because of her work in arts and education.
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.
Ali-Coleman, K. Z. (2024). For the girls who do too much. Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice Press.
Ali-Coleman, K. Z. (2023). The summoning of Black joy. Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice Press.
Ali-Coleman, K.Z. & Fields-Smith, C. (eds). (2022). Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Practice,
Theory and Popular Culture. Information Age Press (IAP).
Ali-Coleman, K.Z. (2021). “The Depiction of Homeschooling, Black Identity, and Political Thought in
the Film Black Panther”. Afrofuturism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Re-Making of
Blackness (Rowan & Littlefield).
Ali-Coleman, K. Z. (2020). “Essential pathways: An examination of how community colleges compromise
their unique contributions to American higher education”. Higher Education Politics & Economics, 5(1), 54-
69. https://doi.org/10.32674/hepe.v5i1.1141
NONPROFIT
Executive Director, Black Writers for Peace and Social Justice, Inc.
ARTS/HUMANITIES
2008-present Founding Director of Liberated Muse Arts Group
2023-2026 Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD
BOARD APPOINTMENTS
2020 -2022 Montgomery Community Media (MCM)
2018 – 2018 Maryland ACPA Chapter Board Member-at-Large
2014 – 2015 Prince George’s County Parks & Recreation, Advisory Board Member
SERVICE
Co-Editor
• Contemporary Perspectives on Black Homeschooling Book Series, Information Age Publishing
(2020-Present)
Co-Founder/Researcher/Organizer
• Black Family Homeschool Educators & Scholars Teach-In (2020-present)
Production Editor
• Journal of Underrepresented Minority Progress (2017-2019)
Communications & Media Coordinator
• Society of Transnational Academic Researchers (2017-2019)
CURATORIAL WORK
(July 2020-Sept 2020). Flying Towards Freedom: Migration Stories of Maryland Families, Prince George’s
African American Museum and Cultural Center, North Brentwood, MD. INSTALLATION CANCELED
DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC
(Jan 2020-March 2020). Flying Towards Freedom: Migration Stories of Maryland Families, Prince George’s
Memorial Library System, Oxon Hill Branch, Oxon Hill, MD.
(Nov. 7, 2019). Memorialization in the Art of Colombia and the United States, CCBC, Baltimore, MD
(Aug 7-8, 2018). Unboxed/Unbound, Kwanzaa in August, Anacostia Arts Center, Washington, DC.
Doctor of Education (May 2020)
MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, Baltimore, MD
Major: Higher Education/ Community College Leadership
Dissertation: Dual Enrolled African American Homeschooled Students’
Perceptions of Preparedness for Community College
Master of Arts (May 2000)
TOWSON UNIVERSITY, Towson, MD
Major: Mass Communication
Master of Arts Coursework
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY, Baltimore, MD
Major: Instructional Systems Design, Master of Arts and Elementary Education
Certification coursework, (EDUC 601 Human Learning/Cognition; (EDUC 626 )
Strategies in Reading & Writing; EDUC 650 Education in Cultural Perspectives;
(EDUC 622) Instructional Strategie s in Mathematics)
Bachelor of Arts (May 1995)
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY, Baltimore, MD
Major: Interdisciplinary Studies: African American Studies & Mass Media
Minor: Writing
2020 – Present Gamma Xi Phi, Fraternity of Professional Artists of Color, Member
2017 – 2021 The National Council on Black American Affairs (NCBAA), Member
2017 – 2021 Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Member
2017 – 2020 American Educational Research Association (AERA), Member
2016 – 2019 American College Professional Association (ACPA), Member
2016 – 2019 The National Recording Academy, Member
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
2024 UMBC Outstanding Alumni Award
PROFESSIONAL FELLOWSHIPS/ RESIDENCIES
04/05/2021-04/09/2021 Page to Stage Artist Residency
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington DC
08/2019-05/2021 Quadrant Playwright Fellow
Theater Alliance
Washington, DC
09/2019-05/2020 Scholar-In-Residence
Prince George’s County African American Museum and Cultural Center
Brentwood, MD
06/2019-08/2019 Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad
U.S. Department of Education/Morgan State University
Colombia, South America
ACADEMIC FELLOWSHIPS & ASSISTANTSHIPS
08/2017-05/2020 Graduate Student Research Assistantship
School of Graduate Studies, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD
08/1999-05/2000 Graduate Assistant for Diversity and Outreach
Counseling Center, Towson University, Towson, MD
08/1995-05/1996 Graduate Assistant for Evening Programs
Office of Student Activities, Towson University, Towson, MD
06/1994-08/1994 SOAR/McNair Scholar Fellow
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Scholarships/Travel Awards
2019 Black Communities Conference Travel Award
2018 Morgan State University School of Graduate Studies DeCosta Summer Scholarship
2017 AERA Travel Scholarship
2016 Alpha Delta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Book Scholarship
Professional Grants
2024 PGAHC Artist Fellowship Grant $5000
2023 MSAC Professional Development Grant $2000
2021 John F. Kennedy Center Artist Residency $3000
2015 Prince George’s Community College Foundation Impact Grant Award $5000
2014 Summer VCCS Professional Development Grant (declined) $2500
2014 NVCC Adjunct Faculty Professional Development Grant $1500
2015 MSAC Individual Arts Award in Non-Classical Music Solo Performance $1000
Service Awards/Awards of Distinction
2012 Top Forty UNDER 40 Award, Arts & Humanities, Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund
2012 Artist of Distinction, WOMA, Inc.
2011 Woman of Power Award, eMedia
2009 Certification of Appreciation, US Census Bureau
2008 Vision Award, The Office of Residence Life, Morgan State University
2007 Director’s Award, The Office of Residence Life, Morgan State University
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