PROFILE

Jamila Zahra Felton graduated from Spelman College with a B.A. in English and holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University and an M.L.I.S. from The Catholic University of America. A former Boston and DC public school teacher, Jamila works as a school librarian and has over 19 years of experience educating youth and adults.

Jamila’s artist books and zines are in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). Her artist book The Deep End: Or, Some of Us Learned How to Swim was on view in the NMWA Library’s DMV Color Exhibition in 2019-2020. The exhibition may be viewed online. Jamila is a member of Pyramid Atlantic and was Pyramid’s first ever Gregory Vita Paper Arts Resident in summer 2018.

Jamila is also an editor and writer. Jamila’s poetry is published in Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, bum rush the page: a def poetry jam, Sally Hemings Dreams, and within her artist books and zines. Her visual art is published in Loam Magazine’s Permaculture in Practice volume and MelaNation, Issue 1.

Jamila blossoms in Washington, DC, with her husband Melvin, a scientist-writer-musician, their sons Malcolm and Jahlil, and their dog Theory.