AAS Minor Publishes Account of Personal Life Experiences and Reflections on Human Rights
Nikala Asante, AAS Minor and creative writer, self-published her latest work Tomorrow Will Be Better (2015), an intimate conversation, a history primer, a discussion of current events, a Spoken Word Collection, and an invitation to engagement in social justice - all in one. While it is appropriate for any mature reader, it is especially pertinent to high school and college students seeking to better understand themselves and their roles in the world.
Nikala Asante is a creative writer, Spoken Word artist, web series producer, independent educator, and international Human Rights advocate from Houston, TX. Asante fell in love with organizing around Human Rights after traveling to the Dominican Republic to learn about garment worker rights organizing with Solidarity Ignite in 2013. Since then, she has returned to Dominican Republic and Haiti independently and with the University of Houston to help set up medical clinics, to distribute food and water, to plant food bearing trees in deforested areas, to deliver needed supplies, children's vitamins, and toys to orphanages, and to create archives of personal narratives about Haiti's 2010 earthquake.
In her community, Asante organizes homeschooling parents around educational events and field trips to advance their children's learning experiences, as well as tutoring and mentoring inner-city youth. Asante has received numerous awards from the community and university, including the prestigious Gilman International Study Scholarship. She was featured in Defender Networks' Black History special on young leaders following in the footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in 2013, on PBS NewsHour in 2015, and has spoken on Human Rights in two documentaries ("16th Strike: the Documentary" and "Nice: A Place to Start").
Asante has published two collections of poetry, Graffiti Nommo and Re-Divining Self. Additionally, Asante recently published her first web series in 5 episodes, Pharaoh the Web Series -- available for viewing on YouTube. She is currently in the process of developing her own non-profit to connect students with international service learning opportunities - Asante Global Works.