Akiba Solomon

Akiba Solomon writes Colorlines' Gender Matters blog and is an NABJ-Award winning writer, freelance journalist, editor and essayist from West Philadelphia. A graduate of Howard University, the Brooklyn resident co-edited Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts (Perigee, 2005), an anthology of original essays and oral memoirs about Black women and body image.Solomon has been a senior editor for The Source, where she specialized in politics; the health editor for Essence; and the senior editor for Vibe Vixen, a women’s fashion, beauty and lifestyle spin-off of Vibe.She has also written for a range of publications, including Glamour, Redbook, Vibe, Heart & Soul, POZ and ColorLines. As a panelist, she has spoken about women’s and social justice issues through the lens of hip-hop culture at a range of institutions including The Schomburg Center for the Research in Black Culture, Stanford University, Yale University, Harvard University and The University of Chicago.