The Rooted Collective is comprised of artists, activists and scholars based in Maryland.
Members
Saida Agostini is a queer afro-guyanese poet, activist, and survivor. She has dedicated her career to building peer led healing spaces for Black queer people. A published writer, her work has been featured in a number of publications including TORCH, pluck! and The Baltimore Sun. Saida’s first collection of poems, let the dead in, was a finalist for the Center of African American Poetry & Poetics’ 2020 Book Prize as well as the New Issues Poetry Prize. She is the author of STUNT (Neon Hemlock, October 2020), a chapbook exploring the history of Nellie Jackson, a Black woman entrepreneur who operated a brothel for sixty years in Natchez, Mississippi. Her poetry can also be found in the Black Ladies Brunch Collective's anthology Not Without Our Laughter, Barrelhouse Magazine, Hobart Pulp, Plume, and other publications.
Dr. Kalima Young is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronic Media and Film at Towson University. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland College Park. Her research explores the impact of race and gender-based trauma on Black identity, media, and cultural production. A Baltimore native, videographer, and activist, Dr. Young served on the leadership team for FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture’s Monument Quilt Project from 2014 to its culmination. She is also a member of Rooted, a Black LGBTQ healing collective. Her new manuscript, Mediated Misogynoir: The Erasure of Black Women and Girls’ Pain the Public Imagination was released by Rowman and Littlefield’s Lexington Books in 2022. To find out more about her work, check out www.kalimayoung.com.
Blair Franklin is a Black queer femme facilitator and transition doula. She has worked at the intersections of health equity and racial justice for the past 15 years – within philanthropy, government, nonprofits, and the arts. She currently does adaptive consulting and integrative healing work for individuals and organizations through Alight Alchemy, and provides capacity building support to social justice movement leaders across the country with The Praxis Project. They are most curious about spaces for rest and reflection that center Black queer and trans activists and organizers, the healing power within our (re)connection to land and ancestry, and documenting how we embody liberation. A work in progress, they are engaged in their own healing through dance, creative writing, collaborative storytelling, and collective work.
Dr. Nkiru Nnawulezi is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Affiliate Faculty at Yale School of Public Health. She earned her doctorate in Ecological-Community Psychology at the Michigan State University and has additional graduate certifications in college teaching, community engagement, and quantitative research methods. Her research examines the ecological factors that enhance equity within and across the domestic violence housing continuum. She aims to improve the social and material conditions for survivors of gender-based violence who occupy multiply marginalized social identities. Dr. Nnawulezi also seeks to develop sustainable survivor-centered, community-based systems of support that can serve as alternatives to traditional social service systems. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, State of Michigan, and Center for Victim Research. She is an award-winning researcher and mentor and has disseminated her scholarship to academic, policy, and community audiences. As an expert in community-based, participatory research and trained facilitator, Dr. Nnawulezi designs participatory research processes with community partners to find innovative solutions to complex social problems. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Family Violence and is on the editorial board of the Community Psychology in the Global Perspective Journal. She is also a Research and Evaluation Advisor to multiple systems change organizations such as the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, National Innovative Service, and Ujima: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community.
Alexis Flanagan is a queer Black feminist DC girl whose heart pumps to the beat of "the Pocket" that holds down DC go-go music and culture. She is a cultural worker, writer, painter, healer, and organizer working at the intersection of art and activism in the DC Metropolitan Area. Starting out as a K-12 educator and, for the last 12 years, leading organizations working to end sexual and domestic violence, she most recently served 5 years as the Assistant Director of HopeWorks – a comprehensive sexual assault and domestic violence program in Columbia, MD. Alexis’s is currently the Learning and Practice Director at Resonance, a network of individuals who are in deep relationship and practice to interrupt the roots of violence and oppression and create the conditions where all people and communities thrive. Members of Resonance are in active experimentation, practice and learning about how to live into our values, transformation, and liberation for all. For Alexis, the work of the Rooted Collective is the embodiment of this practice in community.
Ti Malik Coleman is a seasoned storyteller, comedian and teacher. A Black genderqueer performer, he is dedicated to building spaces for black queer and trans* folks to come together, and share stories as a mechanism of healing and celebration. As a community artist, they teach students and organizations how to use art to facilitate change. Ti Malik is a founding member of the all black improv group, Casually Dope, and has featured at improv festivals in Toronto, Chicago, New York, DC, and Philadelphia.
Dr. Jamal Hailey is a psychotherapist and post-doctoral fellow at East Towson Psychological Services in Baltimore, Maryland. He is a registered Psychology Associate. Dr. Hailey graduated from Howard University with a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and has a dual bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology from Towson University. Their research examines Black masculinities and intimacy; as well as the historical impacts of social, structural, and institutional inequalities on health disparities impacting Black and queer communities. Dr. Hailey’s career has spanned all aspects of public health and community service, most notably through his role as the Director of Programs at the STAR TRACK Adolescent Health program where he oversaw all community health programming and reimagined the program to be one of the premiere youth serving organizations in Baltimore, grounded in Black and queer liberation during his tenure. Dr. Hailey has been recognized by GLMA: Health Professional Advancing LGBTQ Equality (2015) and the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (2021) for their innovation and commitment to providing services to Black LGBTQ youth and young adults.
