Jourdan Imani Keith
Mentor
Jourdan Keith has been awarded fellowships from Santa Fe Science Writing workshop, VONA (Voices of Our Nations), Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat, Jack Straw Writer’s Program and received funding from Artist Trust, 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs for her play, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Seattle Poet Populist Emerita and Seattle Public Library’s first Naturalist-in-Residence, she is a storyteller, naturalist and educator.
A student of Sonia Sanchez, her work blends the textures of political, personal and natural landscapes to offer voices from the margins of American lives. Coyote Autumn, an excerpt from her memoir, is included in the travel writing anthology Something to Declare from University of Wisconsin press. Her essay, Human Estuaries which is based on her TEDx Talk appears in the fall 2012 YES! Magazine.She is the founder and director of Urban Wilderness Project, providing storytelling, environmental education, and wilderness service-learning programs rooted in social change. Her vision as a literary artist, environmentalist and social justice advocate informs her ongoing development of the R U An Endangered Species?™ workshop curriculum and its’ action campaigns. Her engagements include public speaking, teaching and leading community workshops for institutions from the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, Seattle Bioneers, Seattle GreenFest to Highline Community College.