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Natasha Elle Thomas is a writer, artist, energy worker, and educator focused on wellness, sacred care, and collective liberation. She is also the founder of Sacred Self Love—Collective Liberation (SSLCL), a transformative community and digital publication that emphasizes sacred self-love as the foundation for personal and collective healing. Rooted in both ancestral and contemporary wisdom, SSLCL offers conversations, practices, and resources that affirm the deep connection between individual well-being, liberation, and solidarity. 

Drawing inspiration from Audre Lorde’s assertion that “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare,” and June Jordan’s call to “begin the awesome, difficult work of love,” Natasha emphasizes sacred self-love and holistic self-care as acts of resistance for BIPOC communities. She explores how healing ourselves is an essential response to systemic oppression and how sacred self-love forms the foundation for care, connection, and solidarity in building effective social justice and liberation movements. For Natasha, the deep work of transforming homes, communities, and the world begins within and flourishes through intentional self-tending.

In pursuing this path of love and liberation, Natasha has embraced many roles:

Nonprofit/Public Administrator & Public Policy Advocate:  

Natasha co-founded and served as the Executive Director of RAISE IT UP! Youth Arts & Awareness, an organization dedicated to promoting youth engagement, expression, and empowerment through performance, literary arts, and activism. In this role, she also coached youth poets who competed at the  Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival, an internationally renowned festival and slam competition where over 600 young people from 50+ cities gather annually to compete. The festival, featured as an HBO-televised series, includes workshops, performances, dialogues, and forums focused on creative expression and social activism.

Natasha also served as a Regional Organizing Director for NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voting organization, using innovative digital and field strategies to turn out young voters in key states. Currently, Natasha serves as the Culture & Advocacy Officer for the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH), where she continues to champion youth empowerment, organizational policy, and advocacy initiatives.

Natasha’s work in these roles 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.

Speaker, Lecturer, & Presenter: 

Natasha was a TEDx speaker and her talk is featured in America’s Promise Alliance’s Youth Engagement Toolkit, sponsored by AT&T. She has also served as a lecturer, presenter, and speaker at numerous symposiums, colleges, universities, conferences, and summits, including the 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, Building a Movement for Michigan (BAMM) PRIDE Summit, Sloan Museum, and more.

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

Writer & Author: 

Natasha's writing has been featured in publications such as The Hollywood Reporter,  Womanly Magazine, Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies, The Body is Not an Apology, The Assisi Institute Journal: Memes & Memories, Spoken Black Girl 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.

Performer & Producer:

Natasha has performed 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, and Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monáe, Ryan Coogler, and Jesse Williams at the BlackOut for Human Right’s Justice for Flint concert. 

She has also collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma and the University of Michigan Musical Society to produce the Culture, Community, & Resilience - Day of Action and Living Room Open Mic.

Additionally, she worked with pianist and composer Adriene Torf —June Jordan’s longtime collaborator and partner—and Voices of the Revolution on a tribute show honoring the late June Jordan. Currently, Natasha is collaborating with Adrienne Torf and poet Lisa Sarno on a production inspired by June Jordan’s work, titled The Awesome Difficult Work of Love, and produced by Adrienne Torf. Additionally, she has shared the stage with Angela Davis, Danny Glover, Robert Redford, Dave Matthews Band, the late bell hooks, and more.

Teaching Artist & Artist-in-Residence:

Natasha's 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 role, she worked as a consultant at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, partnering with biology teacher Alex Cassidy to design an arts-integrated curriculum that examined the intersection of genetic medicine, genetic engineering, and social justice. Additionally, she has served as a teaching artist in Detroit and Flint, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; and Columbia, South Carolina.

Writing Coach and Instructor: 

Currently, Natasha works as an independent writing coach and an instructor for midnight & indigo,, a boutique publisher and literary journal that highlights Black women writers by providing a platform to share our narratives. Specializing in short fiction and essays, midnight & indigo contributes to the Black literary tradition while amplifying historically marginalized voices. At midnight & indigo, Natasha teaches the course Narrative Essay Writing for Healing & Liberation, which explores writing as a transformative and empowering practice. 

She also teaches Women, Writing, & Resistance for  Literary Liberation and Fellowship of the Griots. Literary Liberation is a community of artists, writers, and activists from diverse creative fields who collaborate toward liberation and social change. Fellowship of the Griots is a community organization dedicated to centering the voices and power of Black writers and allies.

Holistic Wellness and Healing Arts Practitioner:

Natasha is an ordained wedding officiant, a certified Level III Usui Reiki Master, an ancestral herbalist, and an intuitive reader.

Honors: 

Natasha’s recognitions include being selected as a Writer-in-Residence for Sea Salted Honey's 2024 Sojourn of Return Writing Residency in Dakar and La Petite Côte, Senegal. Previously, she was honored as a Windcall Institute Residency Awardee and was one of three recipients of the inaugural $25,000  Impact Award from the Detroit Pistons Foundation. This award recognized her “outstanding leadership and community contributions in the areas of youth leadership and entertainment.”