Abdul Ali is a culture critic, creative writing instructor, and a poet. His culture writing, essays, and poems have been anthologized and published widely including The Root, NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and the Washington City Paper. Mr. Ali is a fellow at American University where he is currently an MFA candidate (’13) and is managing editor of the literary journal, FOLIO. You may visit his blog, Words Matter, at www.abdul-ali.com. In 2010, Abdul Ali received an artist fellowship in Literature from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.