Red Emma’s

C. Islaah Abd'al-Rahim (Sister Islaah) is a West Baltimore-born and raised Muslim woman. She is a writer-poet, career educator, and public speaker who describes herself as the hype-woman for the righteous revolution. Over the past four decades, she has written about Islaam and  life in inner city America through the triangulated lenses of Western oppression -- being black, being female, and being a hijaab-wearing Muslim in society that encourages women to demonstrate their freedom through such aspects of culture as fashion and the rejection of "stereotypical" gender roles.The concerns  of Muslim women who live in urban America are rarely documented in literature. Their experiences are assumed to be similar to their Middle Eastern, Asian, and African sisters, even though the legacy of slavery and social injustice in America informs their daily lives.  Moreover, to be Muslim and black can lead to a kind of "consciousness schizophrenia," where one must choose which prejudice to recognize at any moment.Join us on May 19th, the  91st anniversary of Malcolm X's birth, as she shares offerings from her book, Random Lamentations, Protest Chants, and Affirmations: Selected Works from a Blackfemale Muslim Muslimfemale Black (1976 - 2016).  Woven between the poetic selections will be observations on faith, the legacy of Malcolm, and relevance of intersectionality. This presentation will, hopefully, allow listeners to view black Muslim women, in particular, and activists of faith, in general, through a clearer window.