This Wisdom Wednesday features the story of the rebellious journey of a young woman coming of age during the Black Power era and the social justice attorney she becomes. Taifa’s story is part memoir, part textbook, part study guide, part expose. It teaches, preaches, rhapsodizes and tantalizes. It stitches suspense, calamity, humor and wit into a tapestry of history, politics, law, culture and romance. Whether serious or scandalous, her audacious quest for justice is a gripping commentary on life; the perennial nature of human resistance against oppression; and her earnest embrace of what is fair and correct.

In the words of Nkechi Taifa, “Who would have visualized a Black president in the U.S. in our lifetime? Who would have imagined the COINTELPRO of the past would resurrect under the new moniker, ‘Black Identify Extremist.’? Who would have forecast that the terms “white supremacy” would become mainstream parlance? Who would have predicted the election of a racist reality TV star as the country’s Chief Executive? And who would have guessed that the issue of reparations would become a top news item in the media? Certainly not I, a little dark-hued girl growing up during the 50’s in segregated Washington, DC. Not me, the impressionable youngster who came of age during the Black is Beautiful and Black Power Movements of the late 1960s and 1970s. And definitely not the badass woman warrior-lawyer I became, who worked to either dismantle, or uplift, these issues as part of a life of activism.”

Join this sneak preview to hear slices from the author’s authentic, unapologetic and unfiltered life’s narrative that she hopes will “awaken, inform, provoke, move and, at its best, fire us up to either join, or continue, “The Struggle.”

About the Speaker:

Nkechi Taifa is President and CEO of The Taifa Group, LLC, a social enterprise firm whose mission is to advance justice. She also convenes the Justice Roundtable, an advocacy coalition advancing progressive justice system transformation. In addition to Black Power, Black Lawyer: My Audacious Quest for Justice, Nkechi is also the published author of several classic books for children – Shining Legacy: Storypoems and Tales for the Young, So Black Heroes Forever Will be Sung (1983); Three Tales of Wisdom (1983); and The Adventures of Kojo and Ama (1992). Nkechi Taifa co-authored, along with Dr. Imari Obadele and Attorney Chokwe Lumumba, the pioneer book, Reparations Yes (1987). Attorney Taifa is also the author of numerous scholarly works, including law review articles, book chapters and white papers.

She received her Juris Doctorate from George Washington University Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Howard University. She is the proud mother of a daughter, Mariama Taifa-Seitu.

What is the Wisdom Wednesday Series?

With a focus on mental liberation, this lecture series aims to draw on the deep well of African history, culture & wisdom in order engage in Sankofa (the act of remembering what was lost).