Khadijah Ibrahiim

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

is a literary activist, theatre maker and writer from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England. She is the founder and artistic director of Leeds Young Authors, and executive producer of the documentary '' We Are Poets''. She and her work have appeared on

BBC Radio 1Xtra BBC Radio 1Xtra is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts Black music and urban music, including hip hop and R&B and is a sister station to Radio 1. Launching at 18:00 on 16 August 2002, it had been ...

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

and

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Biography

Ibrahiim is of Jamaican parentage, her politically active grandparents were two of the 5,000 people who came to

in the 1950s. She was born in Leeds and she would meet Jamaican musicians who visited her home. She attended the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

and has a master's degree in Theatre Studies. She has toured her work in America, Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

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 An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

. After a year, the money was gone but the enthusiasm remained, so the workers became volunteers. Ibrahiim attended the

Calabash International Literary Festival The Calabash International Literary Festival, inaugurated in Jamaica in 2001, is a three-day festival that was held annually for its first decade, before being staged on a biennial basis on even years, until 2018. With the 2020 and 2022 festivals ...

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 Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

, where the Queen and Prince Philip honoured the work of contemporary British poetry. In 2017, she was creative associate for the theatre production ''Ode To Leeds'' at the

West Yorkshire Playhouse Leeds Playhouse is a theatre in the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1990 in the Quarry Hill area of the city as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, successor to the original Leeds Playhouse, and was rebranded in June 2018 ...

. In 2008, she toured the USA with the ''Fwords Creative Freedom writers''. 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 Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays a ...

in 2020; ''The Promise of a Garden'' as associate director of the ''Performance Ensemble''; ''Sorrel & Black Cake'' as writer and director with the Geraldine Connor Foundation; ''Symphonic Dancers'', as writer and poet for

Phoenix Dance Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), an immortal bird in ancient Greek mythology * Phoenix, Arizona, the capital of the U.S. state of Arizona and the most populous state capital in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: ...

. In 2019, Ibrahiim and two other poets were commissioned as part of the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, Leeds Libraries and

Poet in the City Poet in the City is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1998 as a project of the Poetry Society; it became an independent charity in 2006. Poet in the City collaborates with partners from the arts and beyond, from the Barbican Centre, ...

collaboration ''Collections in Verse''. 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. In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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 Linton Kwesi Johnson Order of Distinction, OD (born 24 August 1952), also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poetry, dub poet and activist. In 2002, he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in th ...

, and Camille Quamina from Jamaica. Ibrahiim's poetry has been published by

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. Poet Kwame Dawes has said: "Peepal Tree Press's position as the leading pu ...

, which publishes international writing from the Caribbean, its diasporas and the UK. Her work has appeared in university journals and poetry anthologies and on

Radio 3 and

Publications

* ''Voices of Women'' (Yorkshire Arts, 2003) * ''Hair'' (Suitcase Press, 2006) * ''Rootz Runnin'' (Peepal Tree Press, 2008) * ''Red: An Anthology of Contemporary Black British Poetry'', edited by

Kwame Dawes Kwame Senu Neville Dawes (born 28 July 1962) is a Ghanaian poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and former Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He is now Professor of English at the University of N ...

(Peepal Tree Press, 2010) * ''Out of Bounds: British Black & Asian Poets'', edited by

Jackie Kay Jacqueline Margaret Kay (born 9 November 1961) is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist, known for her works ''Other Lovers'' (1993), ''Trumpet'' (1998) and ''Red Dust Road'' (2011). Kay has won many awards, including the Somerset Maugham A ...

, James Procter, Gemma Robinson (Bloodaxe, 2012) * ''Another Crossing'' (Peepal Tree Press, 2014) * ''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) * ''More Fiya: A New Collection of Black British Poetry'', edited by Kayo Chingonyi (Canongate, Edinburgh, 2022)

Awards and recognition

Leeds Black Award 2011 In 2017 and 2019, Ibrahiim was shortlisted for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. 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 The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

(RSL) in 2024. She signed the RSL roll with

Andrea Levy Andrea Levy (7 March 1956 – 14 February 2019) was an English author best known for the novels '' Small Island'' (2004) and '' The Long Song'' (2010). She was born in London to Jamaican parents, and her work explores topics related to Britis ...

's pen. Her published collection ''Another Crossing'' was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2014.

Private life

Ibrahiim has a daughter, Rheima Robinson, who is also a poet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibrahiim, Khadijah 21st-century British poets 21st-century English women writers Alumni of the University of Leeds Black British writers English people of Jamaican descent English theatre directors English women poets Living people Writers from Leeds Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature