Akiba Solomon

Akiba Solomon is the senior editorial director of Colorlines.com, a daily news, culture and opinion site published by the racial justice nonprofit Race Forward. Prior to joining Colorlines full time, Akiba freelanced for a range of print outlets including Essence, Glamour, Dissent, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, POZ, XXL and Redbook. She did full-time stints as a health editor at Essence and a senior editor at The Source under Selwyn Sefu Hinds and Carlito Rodriguez. Akiba is currently co-curating with Kenrya Rankin a collection of essays, interviews, visual art, photography, poetry, sermons, spells (seriously), playlists and more titled "How We Fight White Supremacy." Participants include TaNehisi Coates, Alicia Garza, Tarana Burke, Damon Young, Jamilah Lemieux, Maori Holmes, Darnell Moore, Asali Solomon, adrienne marie brown, Robin D.G. Kelly, Jay Smooth, Haki Madhubuti and Harry and Gina Belafonte. Nation Books will publish it in 2019. Akiba's first book, with Ayana Byrd, was "Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips and Other Parts," a groundbreaking anthology about Black women and body image that preceded all social media besides MySpace, smartphones, selfies, natural hair blogs, Black feminist blogs and meetups. Tracee Ellis Ross, Jill Scott, Iyanla Vanzant, Kelis and Sonia Sanchez were among its contributors. A Philadelphia native and graduate of Howard University, Akiba has spoken at institutions, including The Schomburg Center, Uncle Bobbie's Coffee and Books and Art Sanctuary. She has also spoken at a number of universities including Barnard, Dillard, Harvard, Stanford and Yale. She lives Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.

Racial justice, family bio + chosen, storytelling, and cultivating and fairly paying quality journalists of color.

Direct communication, by women of color in particular, can be a tool of resistance.

Singing, songwriting, drawing, collaging, braiding and deadpan humor