# Walidah Imarisha > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Walidah_Imarisha > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Walidah_Imarisha.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walidah_Imarisha > Source revision: 1302616714 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American writer, activist, and educator}} {{Infobox writer | name = Walidah Imarisha | image = Walidah Imarisha on The Laura Flanders Show.jpg | caption = Imarisha discusses ''Octavia's Brood'' on ''[The Laura Flanders Show](/source/The_Laura_Flanders_Show)'' in 2015 | occupation = Writer, activist | nationality = American | genre = Visionary fiction }} '''Walidah Imarisha''' ({{langx|am|ወሊዳ ኢማሪሻ}}) is an American writer, activist, educator and spoken word artist. ==Career== ===Writing=== Imarisha is co-editor, with [Adrienne Maree Brown](/source/Adrienne_Maree_Brown), of ''Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements'',{{cite news|last1=Mirk|first1=Sarah|author-link=Sarah Mirk|title=(Re)Writing the Future: Social Justice and Science Fiction|url=http://bitchmagazine.org/post/rewriting-the-future-social-justice-and-science-fiction|access-date=2015-03-06|publisher=Bitch Media|date=2014-12-15}} named after the legendary science fiction writer [Octavia Butler](/source/Octavia_Butler).{{cite news|url=http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/science-fiction-post-ferguson-world-walidah-imarisha|title=Science Fiction and the Post-Ferguson World: "There Are as Many Ways to Exist as We Can Imagine"|last1=Hansen|first1=Mary|date=December 3, 2014|access-date=2015-03-06|publisher=Yes! Magazine}} She also co-edited ''Another World Is Possible'', the first anthology out in response to the [9/11 attacks](/source/9%2F11_attacks). Imarisha is the author of the poetry collection ''Scars/Stars'' (Drapetomedia, 2013){{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Donovan|title=The Black Experience: Local Author Weaves Personal Tales into a Fascinating Read|url=http://portlandobserver.com/news/2014/feb/26/black-experience/|access-date=2015-03-06|publisher=The Portland Observer|date=2014-02-26|archive-date=2015-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308122746/http://portlandobserver.com/news/2014/feb/26/black-experience/|url-status=dead}} and the nonfiction book focused on criminal justice issues, ''Angels with Dirty Faces: Dreaming Beyond Bars'' ([AK Press](/source/AK_Press)/IAS, 2016), which won the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. She was a member of the poetry duo Good Sista/Bad Sista, and appeared on Puerto Rican [punk](/source/punk_rock) band [Ricanstruction](/source/Ricanstruction)'s second album, ''Love and Revolution''. Her words have been featured in Total Chaos: The Art And Aesthetics of Hip Hop, Letters From Young Activists, Daddy, Can I Tell You Something, Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, The Quotable Rebel, Near Kin: A Collection of Words and Art Inspired by Octavia Butler, [Joe Strummer](/source/Joe_Strummer): Punk Rock Warlord, Stories for Chip: A Tribute to [Samuel R. Delany](/source/Samuel_R._Delany), and Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency.{{cite web|title=College of Liberal Arts & Sciences: Black Studies|url=http://www.pdx.edu/blackstudies/walidah-imarisha-biography-0|website=Portland State University|access-date=2015-03-06|archive-date=2015-02-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226102450/http://www.pdx.edu/blackstudies/walidah-imarisha-biography-0|url-status=dead}} Imarisha was also one of the founders, and the first editor, of the [political hip hop](/source/political_hip_hop) publication ''[AWOL Magazine](/source/AWOL_Magazine)''. She served on the editorial board for the national [Left Turn Magazine](/source/Left_Turn), and was the director and co-producer of the Katrina documentary ''Finding Common Ground in [New Orleans](/source/New_Orleans)''. ===="Visionary Fiction"==== Imarisha (together with ''Octavia's Brood'' co-editor Adrienne Maree Brown) describes her genre of fiction as "[visionary fiction](/source/visionary_fiction)":
We believe that radical science fiction is actually better termed visionary fiction because it pulls from real life experience, inequalities and movement building to create innovative ways of understanding the world around us, paint visions of new worlds that could be, and teach us new ways of interacting with one another. Visionary fiction engages our imaginations and hearts, and guides our hands as organizers."{{Cite news |title=Quick Hit: 'Octavia's Brood' available for pre-order |url=https://geekfeminism.org/2015/02/10/quick-hit-octavias-brood-available-for-pre-order/ |work=Geek Feminism Blog |date=2015-02-11 |access-date=2018-08-30 |language=en-US}}
===Teaching=== Walidah has taught in Stanford University's Program of Writing and Rhetoric, Pacific Northwest College of the Arts' Master's in Critical Studies Program, [Portland State University](/source/Portland_State_University)'s [Black Studies](/source/Black_Studies) Department,{{cite news|url=http://www.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2014/12/08/world-building-as-resistance-walidah-imarisha-and-grace-dillon-talk-revolutionary-science-fiction|title=World-Building as Resistance: Walidah Imarisha and Grace Dillon Talk Revolutionary Science Fiction|last1=Burbank|first1=Megan|date=December 8, 2014|access-date=2015-03-06|publisher=The Portland Mercury}} [Oregon State University](/source/Oregon_State_University)'s Women Gender Sexuality Studies Department, and [Southern New Hampshire University](/source/Southern_New_Hampshire_University)'s English Department. She presented all over Oregon as a public scholar with Oregon Humanities' Conversation Project for six years on topics such as [Oregon](/source/Oregon) Black history,{{cite web|title=A Hidden History|publisher=Oregon Humanities|author=Walidah Imarisha|date=August 13, 2013|url=https://oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/skin-summer-2013/a-hidden-history/}} alternatives to incarceration, and the [history of hip hop](/source/history_of_hip_hop).{{cite web|title=Are the Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality?: Religion and the Burdens of Black Sexual Politics|url=http://iraas.com/node/367|publisher=Columbia Institute for Research in African-American Studies|access-date=2015-03-06}} ===Organizing=== Walidah spent six years on the board of the [Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors](/source/Central_Committee_for_Conscientious_Objectors), and helped to found the Human Rights Coalition, a group of prisoners' families and former prisoners with three chapters in Pennsylvania. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * [https://www.walidah.com/ Personal website] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Imarisha, Walidah}} Category:21st-century African-American women writers Category:21st-century African-American writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:African Americans in Oregon Category:African-American activists Category:African-American feminists Category:African-American history of Oregon Category:African-American novelists Category:Afrofuturist writers Category:American anti-racism activists Category:American feminist writers Category:American people of Ethiopian descent Category:American science fiction writers Category:American women academics Category:American women novelists Category:Black studies scholars Category:Feminist science fiction Category:Living people Category:Novelists from Oregon Category:Oregon State University faculty Category:Portland State University faculty Category:Prison abolitionists Category:American prison reformers Category:Southern New Hampshire University faculty Category:American women science fiction and fantasy writers Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon Category:Year of birth missing (living people) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Walidah Imarisha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walidah_Imarisha) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walidah_Imarisha?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.