Natasha Elle Thomas is a writer, artist, educator, and energy worker who centers radical self-love and holistic self-care as pathways to collective liberation. Drawing on the wisdom traditions of her cultural and ancestral mothers and foremothers, she focuses on reclaiming, decolonizing, and preserving practices, rituals, and models that affirm the belief that the work we do within ourselves is directly connected to the work we can accomplish in our communities. Aligned with Audre Lorde's quote, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare," Natasha's work centers radical self-love and holistic self-care for BIPOC communities, recognizing that healing and self-preservation are essential acts of resistance in the face of systemic oppression.

As a nonprofit and public administrator, she co-founded and served as Executive Director of  RAISE IT UP! Youth Arts & Awareness, an organization dedicated to empowering young voices to inspire transformation through artistic expression. In this role, she had the privilege of coaching talented youth poets who performed at the  Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival. Additionally, she worked as a Regional Organizing Director for  Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival, where she applied her expertise to advance community organizing initiatives. Currently, Natasha serves as the Culture and Advocacy Officer for the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health.

Natasha’s work in youth development, policy/advocacy, political organizing, and public art has been recognized and highlighted in publications such as Teen Vogue, National Public Radio (NPR), PBS NewsHour, The Poetry Foundation, Okayplayer,  Americans for the Arts, Broadway World, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Mashable, Vulture, Yahoo, Revolt, Blavity, and more. Her youth advocacy work is highlighted in Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger written by Dr. Julie Sze and published by University of California Press.

Natasha has served as a lecturer and presenter at symposiums, colleges/universities, conferences, and summits. She was a TEDx speaker and her talk is featured in America’s Promise Alliance’s Youth Engagement Toolkit sponsored by AT&T. She regularly serves as a lecturer and presenter at colleges, universities, conferences, and summits including University of California’s Department of Global Studies, The Allied Media Conference, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Planned Parenthood’s Powering Change Summit, The National Organization for Women’s Michigan Conference, The Place-Based Education Conference, The Michigan Sociological Association Conference, Sloan Museum, and more.

She partnered with former Vice President Al Gore's Climate Reality Project where she served as a presenter during the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Global Training. She also worked as a policy consultant for the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and presented a training on building sociopolitical solidarity between Black and Asian communities at their national convening (in partnership with The UndocuBlack Network) in Los Angeles, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles Uprising.


As a writer and author, Natasha's works have been featured in publications such  The Hollywood Reporter, The Body is Not an Apology (TBINAA), Womanly Magazine, Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, The Assisi Institute Journal: Memes & Memories, and more. She also wrote the poetic foreword for IMAGN – Increasing Minority Awareness of Genetics Now, a report published by the Black Congressional Caucus and John Hopkins University Genetics and Public Policy Center.

Natasha has performed, spoken, and organized alongside notable figures such as Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw for her Breaking the Silence initiative at Vassar College, the late Harry Belafonte at his Many Rivers to Cross Music & Social Justice Festival, Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monáe, Ryan Coogler, and Jesse Williams at the  BlackOut for Human Right’s Justice for Flint concert,t. She has also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma on the  Culture, Community, & Resilience - Day of Action and Living Room Open Mic , and with pianist and composer, Adriene Torf (June Jordan’s collaborator & longtime partner) and Voices of the Revolution on a tribute show to the late June Jordan. She has shared the stage with Angela Davis, Danny Glover, Robert Redford, Dave Matthews Band, the late bell hooks, and more.

Her work extends into arts-integrated education, where she serves as a Teaching Artist-in-Residence for Michigan Arts Access, promoting creativity, education, and accessibility to the arts for youth with disabilities. She is also a Teaching Artist for the Race, Equity, Arts, and Cultural History (REACH) Initiative, which aims to establish a nationally replicable model for arts learning in U.S. schools. In this capacity, she served as a consultant at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, collaborating with biology teacher Alex Cassidy to develop an arts-integrated curriculum exploring the intersection of genetic medicine, genetic engineering, and social justice.

Currently, Natasha is an independent writing coach and writing instructor at midnight & indigo, a small publisher and literary journal dedicated to providing a platform for Black women writers to share narratives. Specializing in short fiction and essay writing, midnight & indigo contributes to the rich Black literary tradition while amplifying marginalized voices. There, Natasha teaches a course titled "Narrative Essay Writing for Healing & Liberation." She will also teach an upcoming course called Women, Writing, & Resistance for Literary Liberation, a community of artists, writers, and activists across multiple creative concentrations working towards collective liberation.

Natasha’s honors include being selected as a Writer-in-Residence for Sea Salted Honey's 2024 Sojourn of Return Writing Residency in Dakar and La Petite Cote, Senegal. Prior to that, she was a Windcall Institute Residency Awardee and also one of three people to receive the first-ever $25,000 Impact Award from the Detroit Pistons’ Foundation in recognition of her “outstanding leadership and community contributions in the area of youth leadership and entertainment.”

As a healing arts practitioner and energy worker, Natasha is a Certified Level III Usui Reiki Master, herbalist, and intuitive reader.