Najah Amatullah has been writing since she was a young girl, but her “day job” is teaching English language arts abroad. 

Najah has written for several publications, and also wrote creative reviews for a restaurant and entertainment venue, Urban Roots (by the same owners of the current Kindred Spirits). 

Najah started competing in poetry slams in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she became more active around her hometown of Oklahoma City including her first shared stage with hip hop artist Jabee at the Norman Music Festival; and in her first solo show. Her first self-published poetry book, The Risk to Bloom, went on sale in March 2014.

In 2015, Najah wrote the poem “Black Future” for her friend, Jabee, and they turned the poem into an album: In the Black Future There’s a Place So Dangerously Absurd (August 2016). The outtakes, or B sides, of that album were titled Juneteenth and released on that day 2016.

In February 2021, Najah co-authored a children’s book with Quraysh Ali Lansana about Black Wall Street, titled Opal’s Greenwood Oasis. In December 2022, Najah completed a master of arts degree in literature. She continues to focus on enhanced secondary curriculum, publishing poems, and performing and speaking.  She wants to maintain the wonder and transcendence of the language arts, studying aesthetic trends in writing by Black and Latinx folx. 

Want to learn more about Najah? Check out her website, here.