American poet
Quraysh Ali Lansana (born Ron Myles [1] September 13, 1964, Enid, Oklahoma)[2] is an American poet, book editor, civil rights historian, and professor.[3][4][5] He has authored 20 books in poetry, nonfiction and children’s literature. In 2022, he was a Tulsa Artist Fellow and Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, where he was also Lecturer in Africana Studies and English. Lansana is also credited as creator and executive producer of "Focus: Black Oklahoma," a monthly radio program on the public radio station KOSU.[6]
Early life and education
Born Ron Myles in Enid, Oklahoma, on September 13, 1964,[2] he graduated Enid High School in 1982.[7][1] Prior to focusing on poetry, in the 1980s he studied broadcast journalism[8][5] at the University of Oklahoma and worked as an assignment editor at KWTV.[1] After spending a year living in Medicine Park, Oklahoma, Lansana decided to move to Chicago in 1988.[8] There he worked as an editor for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, and founded Nappyhead Press.[8]
Lansana grew up in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but changed his name to Quraysh Ali after converting to Islam in 1993,[8] and adopted the last name Lansana upon marriage to now ex-wife Emily Hooper in 1996.[8] He practiced Islam until 1999,[1] later also turning to African faiths such as Yoruba[8] and attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.[1]
He decided to return to school in 1996, earning his B.A. in African American Studies at Chicago State University[5] where Gwendolyn Brooks was his mentor.[1] Lansana holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from New York University.[2]
Teaching career
Lansana has taught at the Juilliard School,[3] the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Oklahoma City University,[7][2] and was the director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University.[7][2] He currently works as the acting director for the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation,[9] Writer in Residence for the Center for Poets & Writers,[10] and as a professor of Africana Studies and English at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa.[11]
Historical research
As a historian Lansana has extensively researched the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. For the centennial of the tragedy, he helped create an exhibit at Tulsa's Philbrook Museum of Art,[12] taught workshops at OSU-Tulsa,[11] worked with the History Channel, WYNC Studios, and KOSU to create Blindspot: Tulsa Burning podcast,[13] and hosted the documentary Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later which broadcast on OETA.[10] Lansana also wrote a children's book about the Greenwood District with Najah-Amatullah Hylton and illustrator Skip Hill entitled Opal’s Greenwood Oasis.[14]
Awards
In 1999 he won the Wallace W. Douglas Distinguished Service Award[3] and the Henry Blakely Award,[2] was nominated for the NAACP Image Award in 2012,[3] and was named the Chicago Black Book Fair's Poet of the Year in 2000.[2] He also received a Tulsa Artist Fellowship[4] to create a radio program entitled Focus: Black Oklahoma[5] for NPR affiliate KWGS.[5]
