Mariam I. Williams

Writer

Dancer

Cultural Curator

Self love in a world that hates you is one of the most subversive acts you can commit

–Mariam I. Williams

I’m a writer, dancer, and cultural curator who considers Maya Angelou, Ntzoke Shange, and Katherine Dunham–Black women whose work shows their love for Africa and the African Diaspora–my literary, dance, and research ancestors. Amplifying Black women’s stories to inspire Black communities towards healing and collective liberation is my lifelong project and purpose.

I believe

Anti-blackness and misogyny confront us daily.

Liberation starts with self-knowledge.

Self-knowedge lays the foundation for self-love.

 

And self-love is radical and resilient enough to rebuild generations of devastation.

 

 

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Featured Blog Posts

My favorites from Redbone Afropuff & Black G.R.I.T.S., plus new work

What’s self-love got to do with it right now?

In normal circumstances, in everyday misogyny and anti-blackness, when white supremacy is just doing its usual thing, we have to learn and re-teach ourselves self-love all the time and in the artistic and literary ways we have for centuries. But in a pandemic? What does self-love even look like right now?

The Pursuit of Wholeness

In 2015, I had a farewell dinner with a friend a few nights before I left Louisville. As we sat inside a dark restaurant filled with families but better suited for couples, awaiting our order of Indo-Chinese fusion dishes we had never heard of, my friend asked,...

My Price for Black Feminism

For more than a year now, I’ve been trying to figure out how much of a capitalist I am. Am I doing what I must to navigate the capitalist system I live in, or have I become convinced this system that so brutalized my ancestors and that continues to make people and...

The Complexities of Black Christianity

I recently attended Ira Dworkin’s talk about his book, “Congo Love Song: African American Culture and the Crisis of the Colonial State.” In the Q&A, I asked: How did Sheppard and Brown see their identity in relation to Africa and their responsibility to the...

Published Writing

Where to read or purchase my work

Mariam I. Williams

Writer. Dancer. Educator.

My work is to reaffirm our resilience.

© 2025 by Mariam  I. Williams

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