Khadijah Ibrahiim
{{Short description|Literary activist, theatre maker and writer}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Khadijah Ibrahiim
| honorific_suffix = FRSL
| image = Khadijah Ibrahiim.jpg
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| birth_place = Leeds, England
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| occupation = Literary activist, theatre maker and writer
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| alma_mater = University of Leeds
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| nationality = British
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Khadijah Ibrahiim FRSL is a literary activist, theatre maker and writer from Leeds, England. She is the founder and artistic director of Leeds Young Authors, and executive producer of the documentary We Are Poets.{{Cite web |title=Khadijah Ibrahiim |url=https://writersmosaic.org.uk/people/khadijah-ibrahiim/ |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=Writers Mosaic |language=en-US}} She and her work have appeared on BBC Radio 1Xtra, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.
Biography
Ibrahiim is of Jamaican parentage,{{Cite web |title=Contribution to Literature: Poetry • Sorrel and Black Cake: A Windrush Story • MyLearning |url=https://www.mylearning.org/stories/sorrel-black-cake-a-windrush-story/1101 |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=www.mylearning.org |language=en}} her politically active grandparents were two of the 5,000 people who came to Leeds in the 1950s. She was born in Leeds and she would meet Jamaican musicians who visited her home.{{Cite news |date=2022-08-17|first=Jenessa |last=Williams|title='My mum used to cook for the Wailers!': Leeds puts its West Indian history on display |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/17/my-mum-used-to-cook-for-the-wailers-leeds-puts-its-jamaican-history-on-display |access-date=2022-12-19 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en}} She attended the University of Leeds and has a master's degree in Theatre Studies.{{Cite web |title=Khadijah Ibrahiim |url=http://www.renaissanceone.co.uk/khadijah-ibrahim |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=Renaissance One |language=en-GB}} She has toured her work in America, Caribbean, Africa and Asia.{{Cite web |last=France |first=Kelly |title=Khadijah Ibrahiim - Eclipse Theatre |url=https://eclipsetheatre.org.uk/1628-khadijah-ibrahiim |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=eclipsetheatre.org.uk |language=en-gb}}
Career
In 2003, she started Leeds Young Authors, running workshops in the Chapeltown area of Leeds funded by a small grant from the Arts Council.{{Cite book |last=English |first=Lucy |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1241446881 |title=Spoken Word in the UK |date=2021 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Group |others=Jack McGowan |isbn=978-1-000-37399-8 |location=Milton |oclc=1241446881}} After a year, the money was gone but the enthusiasm remained, so the workers became volunteers.{{Cite news |last=McCann |first=Mick |date=2012-04-04 |title=The arts class war starts here for Leeds Young Authors and 'We Are Poets' |url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2012/apr/04/leeds-young-authors-wearepoets-poetry-slam-arts-council |access-date=2022-12-19 |newspaper=The Guardian |language=en}}
Ibrahiim attended the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica and she was one of the first international writers to attend the El Gouna Writers Residency in Egypt, 2010. In the following year, she was given the Leeds Black Award 2011 for outstanding contribution to arts. In 2013, she was one of several poets invited to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen and Prince Philip honoured the work of contemporary British poetry.{{Cite web |title=A Dutch Pot Of Stories |url=https://www.leedsinspired.co.uk/blog/dutch-pot-stories |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=Leeds Inspired |language=en}}
In 2017, she was creative associate for the theatre production Ode To Leeds at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.{{Cite journal |last=Bryden |first=Mary |date=January 1993 |title=Happy Days, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, UK, spring 1993 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/jobs.1993.3.1.13 |journal=Journal of Beckett Studies |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=94–100 |doi=10.3366/jobs.1993.3.1.13 |issn=0309-5207|url-access=subscription }} In 2008, she toured the USA with the Fwords Creative Freedom writers.{{Cite web |title=Khadijah Ibrahim |url=http://firststory.org.uk/writer/khadijah-ibrahim/ |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=First Story |language=en-GB}} She produces the Leeds Youth Poetry Slam Festival. Ibrahiim's work includes Dead and Wake, part of Connecting Voices, a collaboration between Leeds Playhouse and Opera North in 2020;{{Cite web |title=Dead and Wake |url=https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/dead-and-wake/ |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=Opera North |language=en-GB}} The Promise of a Garden as associate director of the Performance Ensemble;{{Cite web |title=The Promise Of A Garden |url=https://theperformanceensemble.com/the-promise-of-a-garden/ |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=The Performance |language=en-US}} Sorrel & Black Cake as writer and director with the Geraldine Connor Foundation;{{Cite web |title=Contribution to Literature: Poetry • Sorrel and Black Cake: A Windrush Story • MyLearning |url=https://www.mylearning.org/stories/sorrel-black-cake-a-windrush-story/1101 |access-date=2022-11-18 |website=www.mylearning.org |language=en}} Symphonic Dancers, as writer and poet for Phoenix Dance. In 2019, Ibrahiim and two other poets were commissioned as part of the British Library, Leeds Libraries and Poet in the City collaboration Collections in Verse.{{Cite web |title=The British Library – Windrush: Songs in a Strange Land – Culture& |url=https://www.cultureand.org/partner_projects/partner-projects-the-british-library/ |access-date=2022-12-28 |language=en-US}} She continued her work with the British Library and Leeds Libraries by hosting a spoken-word event with Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan as part of the Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights project.{{Cite news |last=Ryan |first=Emma |date=17 November 2020 |title=British Library partners with Leeds Libraries on a weekend of events exploring women's rights and gender equality in Leeds |work=Yorkshire Evening Post |url=https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/british-library-partners-with-leeds-libraries-on-a-weekend-of-events-exploring-womens-rights-and-gender-equality-in-leeds-3037651 |access-date=28 December 2022}}
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Geraldine Connor Foundation organised an on-line event to celebrate Windrush Day. The event was hosted by Ibrahiim and academic Emily Zobel Marshall. Guests were the writer Colin Grant, poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Camille Quamina from Jamaica.{{Cite web |title=Generations Dreaming: Guest Speakers Announcement |url=https://www.gcfoundation.co.uk/blogs/blog/generations-dreaming-guest-speakers-announcement |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=Geraldine Connor Foundation |language=en}}
Ibrahiim's poetry has been published by Peepal Tree Press, which publishes international writing from the Caribbean, its diasporas and the UK.{{Cite web |title=About us {{!}} Peepal Tree Press |url=https://www.peepaltreepress.com/about-us |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=www.peepaltreepress.com}}
Her work has appeared in university journals and poetry anthologies and on BBC Radio 4{{Cite web |title=Khadijah Ibrahim : ETHER – Ethics and Aesthetics for Encountering the Other |url=https://ether.leeds.ac.uk/profiles/khadjah-ibrahim/ |access-date=2022-11-11 |website=ether.leeds.ac.uk}} Radio 3{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 3 - Northern Drift, Khadijah Ibrahiim and Eliza Carthy |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012glh |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}} and BBC Radio 1Xtra.{{Cite web |title=BBC Radio 1Xtra - Words First - Meet the poets |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3HHNZCHkdrWWWcy4xgNpdfY/meet-the-poets |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
Publications
- Voices of Women (Yorkshire Arts, 2003)
- Hair (Suitcase Press, 2006){{Cite web |title=Khadijah Ibrahiim |url=https://inpressbooks.co.uk/collections/khadijah-ibrahiim |access-date=2022-12-19 |website=Inpress Books |language=en}}
- Rootz Runnin (Peepal Tree Press, 2008){{Cite web |title=Rootz runnin {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/171110430 |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}}
- Red: An Anthology of Contemporary Black British Poetry, edited by Kwame Dawes (Peepal Tree Press, 2010){{Cite book |last=Dawes |first=Kwame Senu Neville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=skNvPgAACAAJ |title=Red: An Anthology of Contemporary Black British Poetry |date=2010 |publisher=Peepal Tree |isbn=978-1-84523-129-3 |language=en}}
- Out of Bounds: British Black & Asian Poets, edited by Jackie Kay, James Procter, Gemma Robinson (Bloodaxe, 2012){{Cite book |last1=Kay |first1=Jackie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c6cFywAACAAJ |title=Out of Bounds: British Black & Asian Poets |last2=Procter |first2=James |last3=Robinson |first3=Gemma |date=2012 |publisher=Bloodaxe |isbn=978-1-85224-929-8 |language=en}}
- Another Crossing (Peepal Tree Press, 2014){{Cite web |title=Another crossing {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/889523263 |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}}
- The Dreams of Those Who Stay Awake, edited by Khadijah Ibrahiim (First Story Limited, 2019)
- The Sea Needs No Ornament: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Caribbean Women Poets, edited by Loretta Collins Klobah, Maria Grau Perejoan (Peepal Tree Press, 2020){{Cite web |title=The Sea Needs No Ornament A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Caribbean Women Poets {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/1223089044 |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}}
- More Fiya: A New Collection of Black British Poetry, edited by Kayo Chingonyi (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2022){{Cite web |title=More fiya : a new collection of Black British poetry {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/1308455562 |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}}
Awards and recognition
In 2017 and 2019, Ibrahiim was shortlisted for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship.{{Cite web |title=Khadijah Ibrahiim {{!}} Peepal Tree Press |url=https://www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/khadijah-ibrahiim |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=www.peepaltreepress.com}}
In 2018, she was shortlisted for the Sue Rider "Yorkshire Woman of the Year" award for her contribution to the arts.
Ibrahiim was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) in 2024.[https://rsliterature.org/fellows/ibrahiim-khadijah/ Khadijah Ibrahiim] at Royal Society of Literature. She signed the RSL roll with Andrea Levy's pen. Her published collection Another Crossing was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2014.
Private life
References
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Category:21st-century British poets
Category:21st-century English women writers
Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds
Category:Black British writers
Category:English people of Jamaican descent
Category:English theatre directors