Khadijah Ali-Coleman

About the Artist

Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman, Ed.D. is currently the 2023 Poet Laureate of Prince George's County, MD.  She is a cultural curator with over 20 years of applied experience transforming places into arts and educational spaces. She is award-winning performance artist Khadijah Moon, and a multi-genre writer who is a producing playwright and filmmaker.  Her plays have been staged, workshopped and read on dozens of stages, including the John F. Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Baltimore Theatre Project and Anacostia Arts Center. Dr. Ali-Coleman is author of the book The Summoning of Black Joy (2023), the children's book Mariah's Maracas (2018) and co-editor of the book Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice and Popular Culture (2022).  Dr. Ali-Coleman founded the multidisciplinary arts group Liberated Muse in 2008 and co-founded the national education research group, Black Family Homeschool Educators and Scholars, LLC (BFHES), in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 quarantine. BFHES has provided a supportive space for over 3000 families since then, offering annual teach-ins and workshops. She has maintained the youth development blog So Our Youth Aspire since 2006. Dr. Ali-Coleman has been featured in the The Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, The Financial Times and more because of her work in arts and education. She has been interviewed by various broadcast media outlets, including NPR, CNN, Slate, and local affiliates of NBC, FOX and CBS. ​For over 20 years, she has created and led educational programs at numerous institutions, and has taught Communication Studies, Professional Writing and Fine & Performing Arts at different colleges and universities since 2011, including Montgomery College, The University of Maryland, Community College of Baltimore County and Prince George's Community College. She is a professional member of The Dramatists Guild, The Recording Academy and the Association of African American Museums.  Her plays can be found on the New Play Exchange. She has been awarded grants and fellowships for her writing, performance and teaching from the Maryland State Arts Council, Prince George's Arts and Humanities Council, Watering Hole Poetry, Poets & Writers, Prince George's Community College Foundation, and Northern Virginia Community College. 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 (African American Studies and Mass Media) with a minor in Writing from the University of Maryland Baltimore, County (UMBC). She earned a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the Workplace Certificate  from the University of South Florida, Muma College of Business in 2021.