Quraysh Ali Lansana

Quraysh Ali Lansana (born Ron Myles September 13, 1964, Enid, Oklahoma) is an American poet, book editor, civil rights historian, and professor. He has authored 20 books. Since 2023, he has worked as an associate professor of English at The University of Tulsa. Lansana is co-creator and executive producer of "Focus: Black Oklahoma," a monthly radio program on the public radio station KOSU.

Early life and education Born Ron Myles in Enid, Oklahoma, on September 13, 1964, He was fired from the station a year later for tardiness. and adopted the last name Lansana upon marriage to now ex-wife Emily Hooper in 1996. Writer in Residence for the Center for Poets & Writers,

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, taught workshops at OSU-Tulsa, worked with the History Channel, WYNC Studios, and KOSU to create Blindspot: Tulsa Burning podcast, and hosted the documentary Tulsa Race Massacre: 100 Years Later which broadcast on OETA. Lansana also wrote a children's book about the Greenwood District with Najah-Amatullah Hylton and illustrator Skip Hill entitled Opal’s Greenwood Oasis.

Awards

In 1999 he won the Wallace W. Douglas Distinguished Service Award to create Focus: Black Oklahoma A Gift from Greensboro Penny Candy Books. (2016) with Christopher Stewart, The Walmart Republic Mongrel Empire Press (2014) mystic turf Willow Books (2012) They Shall Run: Harriet Tubman Poems Third World Press (2004) Southside Rain Third World Press (2000)

Chapbooks reluctant minivan (2014) bloodsoil sooner red. (2009) Greatest Hits: 1995-2005 (2006) cockroach children: corner poems and street psalms (1995)

Children's books The Big World Addison Wesley (1999) with Skip Hill, Gift From Greensboro Penny Candy Books (2021) with Najah-amatullah Hylton and Skip Hill, Opal's Greenwood Oasis The Calliope Group Ltd (2021)

Editor African American Literature Reader Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. (2001) I Represent Gallery 37, Chicago, IL (1996) dream in yourself Gallery 37, Chicago, IL (1997) with Georgia A. Popoff, Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community Teachers & Writers Collaborative (2011) The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop Haymarket Books (2015) Medina, Tony., Bashir, Samiya A, and Lansana, Quraysh Ali. Role Call : A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Art & Literature. Chicago: Third World, 2002. with Georgia A. Popoff, The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience and Change Agent Haymarket Books, 2017. with Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks Curbside Splendor Publishing, 2017.