Meet the Spoken Black Girl Issue 6 Beauty Contributors!
Cover Art by Julie Atkinson
Introducing Our Editors
Editor-in-Chief, Rowana Abbensetts-Dobson
Rowana Abbensetts-Dobson (she/her), known by her loved ones as Yaa, is a writer, digital communications strategist, mother warrior, and Black girl magic entrepreneur. With over 10 years of experience in publishing and non-profit marketing, Rowana has worked with organizations to foster a new generation of diverse readers and writers.
As an author herself, Rowana has published her first novel, Departure Story: a novel, through her publishing company Spoken Black Girl, while also publishing a magazine focused on Black women and mental health. Her passion for storytelling has driven her to work with several grassroots organizations that shed light on issues that impact marginalized communities to create a more equitable world. Rowana is ready to create more spaces, in books, on the web, and in person, for Black women and girls to heal.
Social Media:
Substack: substack.com/@spokenblackgirlmag
Guest Editor, Jana Jones
Jana Jones is an Atlanta-based author originally from Baltimore, Maryland. Her debut adult fiction novel, Vivid, was inspired by her hometown's history of lead paint exposure in low-income neighborhoods. In 2014, she created The Anansi Project, a creative expression workshop for youth and young adults. An anthropologist at heart, one of Jana's happy places is in her car on a road trip to a museum, festival or any other cultural event all while taking photos of historical markers along the way. Always evolving and becoming, Jana is excited for what's ahead on her creative journey.
Website:
Social Media:
Guest Editor, Emelda Juanita De Coteau
Emelda Juanita De Coteau is a loving wife, mama, creative (writer, podcaster, spiritual activist / organizer), and believer seeking God anew in each moment.
Although based in Baltimore, this daughter of a Honduran immigrant feels at home throughout the world. She leads Pray with Our Feet (PWF), an online community lifting the intersection of progressive Christian faith and social justice; she co-hosts the PWF podcast with her Mom, Trudy.
Her writing has appeared in Good Faith Media, Spoken Black Girl Magazine, Good Life Detroit, Beautifully Said Magazine, The Baltimore Times, and on the Pray with our Feet website where she regularly blogs and shares devotionals on spiritual life. Emelda has also blogged for women-led organizations: Breaking the Silence...Healing the Pain and Modestine Tea.
She is also the founder of When Motherhood Looks Different, a community -based small business helping Mamas of neurodivergent kids and neurodivergent Moms center mindfulness and connect in community by offering events, resources, support and caregiver support sessions. Emelda is a mindfulness facilitator working through a trauma-informed lens. She lives in Maryland with her husband Kes and daughter Nai.
Websites:
https://www.praywithourfeet.org
Social Media:
IG: @whenmotherhoodlooksdifferent
Introducing Our Contributors
Julie Atkinson
Julie Atkinson (b. 1977) is a visual artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. Julie began painting while working as a lawyer. She learned techniques and art history through library books, online videos, and community center classes.
In 2020, Julie was inspired her to take her figurative art practice in the direction of exploring Black female identity in a way that liberates Black women from societal assumptions, reclaiming the personal from the political realm. Creating this work became an opportunity for her to exhale, heal, and imagine.
Julie’s work has been exhibited in galleries and public spaces around the San Francisco Bay Area and the country, including as part of the Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in 2022.
Website:
Caroline Lacoma
Caroline Lacoma (b. 1997, Guadeloupe) is a London-based self-taught photographer and writer whose work explores themes of transformation, rebirth, and the self as experienced by a Black woman. Through self-portraiture, she documents the fluidity of personal identity, the process of becoming, and the quiet moments of unmaking and remaking. Her images capture the raw, often unspoken emotional landscapes of healing and introspection, blurring the boundaries between reality and the subconscious.
Her practice began as an act of self-representation and has since evolved into a visual language of metamorphosis—where the body, space, and shadow engage in dialogue.
Social media:@seetheartist_97
Website:https://www.carolinelacoma.com/
Daisy Brown
Daisy Brown is a self-taught photographer born and raised in the Sandtown-Winchester community of Baltimore City. Growing up with a mom that loved documenting family moments, capturing everything from reunions to school events and going to department stores for family portraits. She was always surrounded by a camera, photo albums and pictures on the walls of her family home on Fulton Avenue in West Baltimore. It wasn’t until the 4th grade that Daisy realized what she wanted to capture. With limited access to travel, she started taking pictures during school field trips, her neighborhood, and holidays with family. Just like mom she always has had a camera or a camcorder nearby, a young photojournalist if you will. Mom nurtured her love of photography and was grateful for the seed planted to pursue her passion.
Ms. Brown’s work was featured along with 5 other local Black photographers in the “Bearing Witness: Photographing Black Families in Baltimore” exhibition. Which was on view at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center in September 2024. Her first solo exhibition showcased The Dark Beauty project in 2023. She has collaborated on projects such as “Breathing Black” (Director of Still Photography) 2020 and “By Any Means Necessary: A Story of Survival” (Still Photographer) 2019. Her personal projects that are in production now, “Dark Beauty” and “The Caregivers”, both are docuseries and photo documentaries serving as creator and director. Daisy prides herself on telling stories that are rarely highlighted or underexposed in the Black community, especially in Baltimore through her photography and storytelling. You will find that most of her work in black and white but in color if the moment calls for it. One of her many roles at The Peale Baltimore Community Museum is currently as the staff photographer.
Social Media:
Maroula Blades
Maroula Blades is an Afro-British multidisciplinary artist who has lived in Berlin since 1993. After Brexit, she acquired German citizenship too. She was awarded 2nd place for the 2023 German Amadeu Antonio Prize for her interdisciplinary educational project, ‘Stones in Symphony’. In June 2023, she was awarded a novella in-progress grant from the UK Society of Authors Foundation and the K. Blundell Trust, and in April 2023, a project grant from the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature. She was selected for the 2021 INITIAL Special Grant from the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 2020, Chapeltown Books released her story collection, ‘The World in an Eye’. Her works were published in The Caribbean Writer, Bacopa Literary Review, Mukoli, Ake Review, Abridged Magazine, The London Reader, and others. Regularly, Ms Blades gives bilingual poetry workshops in Berlin schools and high schools. Her multimedia projects have been presented at many international literary festivals in Germany, i.e., the Berlin International Poetry Festival, Humboldt Forum, Literature House Berlin, Literary Colloquium Berlin, Brecht House, and Lit-Cologne.
Website:
Social Media:
Traci Neal
Traci Neal is a neurodivergent poet residing in Columbia, South Carolina. She shared her late diagnosis story on Newsweek and Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, to name a few. Her poetry has been featured in many publications. Neal utilizes poetry as a tool for advocacy and to raise awareness worldwide.
Website:
Afton Williams-Jacobs
Afton Williams-Jacobs (she/they) is a Black, queer, abstract artist, astrologer, and tarot reader. Her work explores concepts of Black sovereignty and sacred connection through abstract and astrological symbolism. Combining her intuitive practices within her artistic process, Afton believes in the healing power of art as a way to uncover your most raw and authentic self. Her award-winning artwork has been featured in various healing-centered exhibitions throughout Connecticut. In addition to her art practice, she is also the founder of Monty’s Tarot Child, a platform providing spiritual guidance to others for them to reconnect with their emotional and spiritual well-being.
Website:
https://www.aftonelizabethh.com/
Social Media:
https://youtube.com/@aftonsgallery?si=jtTG6VFtpyYs2Cwd
IG: @aftonsgallery
Salisa L. Grant
Salisa L. Grant is a mother, wife, poet, educator, and scholar living in the Washington DC area. She has a BA from Hamline University in St. Paul, MN, and an MA from Howard University in Washington DC. Salisa uses poetry to make sense of and process the world around her. She also uses it to heal, communicate, and educate. Her debut poetry collection In these Black Hands (2019) is currently available on Amazon.
Website:
https://salisalynnegrant.wordpress.com/
Social Media:
Instagram: @brownasiwannabe
Chidera Udochukwu-Nduka
Chidera Udochukwu-Nduka is a Nigerian-Igbo writer, creative professional and pharmacist. Chi Deraa won the second prize in the 2024 Dissolution Climate Change Essay Contest organized by Litfest Bergen Norway and first prize in the Letters Category of the 2025 LIGHT Trust Issue. She was a runner-up in the 2024 South African Bloody Parchment Horrorfest competition. She is a recipient of the Illino Media Writing Residency. She was shortlisted for the 2024 AKACHI CHUKWUEMEKA PRIZE FOR LITERATURE. She also won second and third prize in the 2023 and 2024 AS ABUGI PRIZE and second prize in the 2024 IKENGA SHORT STORY PRIZE. She was a finalist in the 2024 K&L PRIZE FOR FICTION and the 2023 E.C MICHEALS SHORT STORY PRIZE. She took the third position in the 2023 BKPW Poetry Contest. She was also shortlisted for the 2023 The Green We Left Behind CNF contest organized by the Arts Lounge Literary Magazine. She won the 2022 Shuzia Songs of Zion Poetry Contest, the 2022 Shuzia Prose Contest. She won first runner-up in the prose category at the 2022 Lagos Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation contest. She also won the 2021 UNIZIK School of Pharmacy Poetry Contest. She is a contributor/ forthcoming at Midnight and Indigo, IHRAF Thorn, Tears, and Treachery Anthology for the Sudanese War and Invisible Chains – Stories of Migrants, Libre Lit, Akpata Magazine, Aprilcentaur, Mythic Picnic, Feminists in Kenya, Lagos Review, Non-Profit Quarterly Magazine, Love and Other Stupid Things Anthology, Fortunate Traveller, Indaba Bafazi SFF Anthology, PIN Best Poems of 2024 Anthology, 2022 Chinua Achebe Poetry/Essay Anthology, Conscio Magazine, Ngiga Review, World Voices Magazine, Valiant Scribe, Arts Lounge Literary Magazine, amongst others.
Social Media:
queenderaa001 @ Instagram, chi_deraa001@ Twitter
Brandon LA Hutchinson
Brandon Hutchinson is a seeker. Attracted to the sweetness in life and the goodness in others, she often finds calm and peace with her indoor plants, trees, and garden beauties, which offer her repeated/tremendous lessons on surrender, healing, and stick-to-it-ness. She is a community builder, spaceholder, facilitator, educator, Reiki practitioner, and radical believer in the value of the pause. These days, she is remembering how to cry, storing her nuggets of daily gratefulness to read on blue days, and writing to unearth memories of pain stored in the viscera. And, she’s finding writing again.
Social Media:
IG: @bqueenleigh
Jada D'Antignac
Jada D’Antignac is a poetry author from Georgia. Under her pen name "nooneswatching" she has self-published three poetry collections: "a pen will guide us home," "stepping towards the mirror," and "coming soon." Advocating for mental health and self-discovery, her work surrounds themes that explore identity, healing, coming-of-age, and more. Her writing has been featured in Harness and TFB Magazine. Aside from writing, you can find her drinking an iced coffee, escaping time with her loved ones, or chatting about music.
Website:
https://linktr.ee/nooneswatching
Social Media:
Kamaria Delaney
Kamaria Delaney is a writer and poet originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, now based in the Chicagoland area. She draws inspiration from both the pulse of the city and her travels around the world, weaving her experiences into powerful, reflective writing. Kamaria is the author of Soul PWR: A Poetry Anthology and she performs spoken word poetry at various events and venues.
In addition to performing, she writes poetry for print and online publication, always exploring themes of identity, place, and personal journey. She is also the founder of Jump and Journey, a travel blog where she shares stories, insights, and tips for fellow wanderers seeking meaningful adventure.
Website:
https://soulpwr.org/ Jumpandjourney.com (travel blog)
Social Media:
Amari Murray
Amari Murray (she/her) is a poet from Brooklyn, New York. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Purchase College, SUNY. She began writing poetry at the age of eight and later published her first poem, “Prayers For The Fear of Family Pandemics,” in high school. When she writes, it is drawn from her personal experiences, rooted in the dualities of pleasure and pain, silence and voice, intimacy and independence. Her work explores secrets, self-discovery, and survival through vivid imagery, layered emotion, and lyrical rhythm. Currently, she has completed her first poetry manuscript, which brings together love, betrayal, and healing into a powerful story about exposing the truth, the danger of silence, and the choice of how a woman reclaims herself. She has performed at the Bowery Poetry Club and Girls Write Now. Her work has appeared in the 2021 Girls Write Now Unmuted Print Anthology, Consortium COVID-19 Journal, UbuntuHarlem Magazine, and UN2RE: Telling Our Own Stories Digital Anthology with forthcoming publication in Quillkeepers Press and The Blunt Space.
Yewande Akinse
Yewande Akinse is a Poet and Author of three collections of poetry, titled, "The rise and fall of rhymes and rhythms" (2025) “A tale of being, of green and of ing" (2019) and Voices: A collection of poems that tell stories (2016). She also holds three law degrees.
Her poems have appeared in Clay Literary, Trampset, Galleyway, Afritondo, Shuf Poetry, The Open Culture Collective, Lumiere Review, Dipity Magazine, The Unconventional Courier, The Agam Agenda, The Creative Zine, Konya Shamsrumi, Sevhage, Moremi Review, Tampered Press, Nightingale and Sparrow, Versopolis, Auvert Magazine, Panocha Zine, Visual Verse, Pride Magazine, The Dirigible Balloon, The BeZine, Outside the box Poetry, Spirits Magazine, Unheard Stories Magazine, Genre: Urban Arts Magazine, Unclear Magazine, Broots Magazine , Beyond the Quill, Wayf Journal, Ave Astra, Cicada Creative Magazine, Poetry as Commemoration, Afro Unidad and elsewhere.
Website:
Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/ADwande
Daniela Dampare
Daniela Dampare is an award-winning, African Canadian poet and writer born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She graduated with an Honors Bachelors in Creative Writing and Publishing from Sheridan College, and was the college's poet laureate in 2024. She was picked as a finalist in Stage 32's TV Comedy Screenwriting Competition, and a quarterfinalist in Final Draft's Big Break Screenwriting Competition. She works as a script consultant for Darius Films, and her hope is to be a showrunner one day.
Website:
https://danieladampare.journoportfolio.com/
Social Media:
https://www.instagram.com/sk.daniela_/ | TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@urstruly.dani | Twitter (X): https://x.com/urstruly_dani
Maya Williams
Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, Maine's seventh poet laureate for a 2021-2024 term. Maya contributed poetry to venues such as FreezeRay, The Cortland Review, Honey Literary, and more. Eir debut full length poetry collection Judas & Suicide was a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second full length poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. They won two chapbook prizes: What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? in 2024 and Feminine Morbidity in 2025. You can follow more of Maya's work at mayawilliamspoet.com.
Website:
Social Media:
https://www.youtube.com/@mayawilliams16
@emmdubb16 Instagram, X, and BlueSky
Adrienne Prather
Adrienne Prather is a writer, author and poet from Atlanta, Georgia. She is also the Graduate of both Atlanta Metropolitan College and Georgia State University. Her passion for writing led her to pursue her dreams as both a writer and Author. The name of her books are Reflections of Love, Encouragement Cafe’, and Grace Finds Peace. Coloring, Skating, Line Dancing are the hobbies that she enjoy doing the most in her spare time.
Social Media:
Jasmine Williams-Jacobs
Jasmine Williams-Jacobs is a cultural strategist and the founder of Black Remote She. Their work focuses on building networks of power for Black communities. Jasmine has also supported a wide-variety of community-led research initiatives as a community advisory board member and collaborative partner to co-create interventions, services, and resources to support the livelihood and well-being of Black queer and trans communities.
Website:
https://www.blackremoteshe.com/
Social Media:
https://www.youtube.com/@blackremoteshe
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-t-jacobs/
Business LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/black-remote-she
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/black.remote.she/?hl=en
Rev. Lotus La Loba
Lotus La Loba (she/her) is a reverend, writer, keynote speaker, and beauty theologian blending spiritual wisdom with grounded healing for Black women and creatives. Born and raised in New York City, she brings a raw mix of grit and grace—hood and holy, street-smart and spiritually rooted.
She’s led transformative sessions for Fortune 500 companies like Meta and Google, and global brands including Spotify and LVMH. Her work centers emotional freedom, energy healing, and creative restoration through EFT, ritual, and storytelling.
As the voice behind The Dark Divines and Lotus Living on Substack, Lotus writes as an act of devotion inviting readers to return to their power, beauty, and divine timing. Through her podcast LOTUSLIKE, her substack spaces The Dark Divine I The Lotus Life and signature programs, she creates spaces where healing is sensual, sacred, and sustainable.
Social Media:
Substack: lotuslaloba.substack.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lotuslaloba
Instagram: @lotuslaloba
TikTok: lotuslaloba
Elizabeth DeHaan
Elizabeth DeHaan is a first-generation American and a Cum Laude graduate from FIU with her B. A in Psychology. Residing in NYC, she has worked in multiple sectors including media, law, policy advocacy, higher education, profit and nonprofit sector. She is currently working at Alight has an Executive Assistant in the Executive Office. Her creative pursuits include being a published author in poetry, and nonfiction. She is the creative force behind enovaturient.com, an RYT Certified yoga instructor, and the sole proprietor of Essence Wellness Collective, a holistic wellness business. She currently serves as the Treasurer for the Board of Directors for UnLocal and on the board of OffWorque.
Social Media:
Karla M Scipio
Karla M. Scipio is a writer, wellness educator, and legacy builder whose work centers Black women's healing, history, and wholeness. Through short stories, devotionals, and guided journals, she tells the truth of what it means to survive, rise, and bloom. Karla believes storytelling is sacred—where memory meets ministry—and she uses her pen to reflect the power, pain, and resilience passed down through generations. Her words are rooted in purpose and always aimed at transformation.
Website
Social Media:
Christie A. Cruise
Christie A. Cruise, PhD is a poet, author, and founder of No More Margins, a platform empowering Black women through creative writing. Her work has been widely published and exhibited, earning numerous accolades. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, she holds advanced degrees from Eastern Illinois and Bowling Green State Universities.
Website
https://www.christieanncruise.com/
Social Media:
Michaela "Mikki" McKenzie
Michaela “Mikki” McKenzie is a Montgomery, AL native, multi-hyphenate artist, and Artistic Director of MikARTS: The Company and MikARTS: Wellness. An alumna of Alabama State University and former Miss Theatre & Dance, she’s performed with Gesel Mason, Wideman Davis Dance, and in The World Games ceremonies. Through her work in dance, film, and community, Mikki creates transformative, joy-filled Black stories and spaces.
Social Media:
Youtube.com/@michaelamikkimckenzie
Instagram: @michaelamikkimckenzie
Crystal Foretia
My name is Crystal Foretia (she, her, hers) and I am J.D. Candidate at Yale Law School. Born and raised just outside of D.C., I am the daughter of Cameroonian immigrants. My identity as a first-generation African-American informs my passions for comparative politics and the history of the African diaspora. My poetry draws extensively on Black history, Afro-centric art, and personal experience to comment on our present moment. My work can be found in Quarto Magazine, Surgam Magazine, That Which Remains, and Changing Wxman Collective, among other places.
Brittney Miles
Brittney Miles is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research centers Black girlhood, specifically related to (a)sexualities, embodiment, and beauty. She uses interdisciplinary qualitative methods to prioritize Black women and girls' critical subjectivities in Black feminist sociological issues. She is currently writing an academic book focused the relationship between Black girls experiences of embodied agency and their adult beauty politics.
Social Media:
IG: b.s.miles | Facebook: miles.brittney (Brittney Miles) | Twitter: @BlkSchlr_BMiles | BlueSky: @blkschlr-bmiles.bsky.social
Kendra Adwoa Amponsah
Hi! My name is Kendra Adwoa Amponsah and I am from Newark, NJ and Hattiesburg, MS. I am also a 2nd generation Ghanaian-American and a student at New York University studying Global Public Health and Applied Psychology. I am the current Policy Analyst for the community-based organization at NYU Langone known as the SHEA Project, standing for Salon Health Education and Access. Our mission is to provide health education for Black women in beauty hubs across New York City to close health disparity gaps. All of my passions for advocacy, community outreach, and diverse story telling stem from observing the Black women and girls in my life who have shaped me into how I am today. I hope to continue telling our stories of creativity, community, and culture to showcase what I have always known: Black girls are magical!
Social Media:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kendra-amponsah
Kayla T.
Kayla T. is a Certified Mental Health Coach, Emotional Wellness Facilitator, and the founder of Broken Hearts Restored, a nonprofit dedicated to making healing feel safe, accessible, and culturally grounded for the Black community. Through her work, she creates restorative, creative spaces that center emotional safety, destigmatize mental health, and honor community as a sacred site of care.
Kayla’s work lives at the intersection of mental wellness, self-love, and storytelling. Whether she is guiding emotional release through reflective letter-writing, curating self-love experiences, or writing from a place of deep truth, her intention remains the same: to help Black people reconnect with their voice, their softness, and their right to be seen.
She is also the founder of Pretty Entrepreneur, a creative brand supporting passion-driven entrepreneurs in bringing their visions to life with clarity and intention. Her commitment to this work is rooted in legacy, lived experience, and a belief that healing should feel human and culturally familiar. Her writing is where softness meets truth — and where survival is gently transformed into self-compassion.
Website:
Khalisa Rae
Khalisa Rae is an award-winning author, educator, and arts administrator based in Durham, NC. She is the author of two books, including her debut collection, Ghost in a Black Girl's Throat from Red Hen Press 2021. She is a 4-time Best of the Net nominee and Pushcart nominee. Her articles appear in Blavity Autostraddle, Catapult, LitHub, Bitch Media, NBC-BLK, and others. Her poetry can be seen in Southern Humanities Review, Electric Lit, Pinch, Rumpus, Tishman Review, Hypertext, Rust & Moth, PANK, among countless others. She is the esteemed co-founder of Griot and Grey Owl Blk Southern Writers Conference in Durham, and the Theater and Literature Director at the North Carolina Arts Council. Her YA novel in verse, Unlearning Eden, is forthcoming.
Website:
Yuki Jackson
Yuki Jackson is a Black and Japanese poet, writer and educator. She uses poetic language, concepts and imagery to share her perspective and experiences rooted in spirituality, gender equality and social justice, all aimed towards enlightenment and empowerment.
Yuki's poetry has been published in literary journals such as Four Way Review and Cream City Review, for which she was nominated for a Best of the Net Award and the Summer Poetry Prize. Her writings and performances have also been featured in numerous exhibitions and venues, including the Goodwin-Procter law firm, Spady Cultural Heritage Museum and The Straz Center.
