Natasha Elle Thomas is a writer, artist, educator, and activist.

Though multifaceted in her approach, all of Natasha’s work aligns within a framework she coined “the self-love to collective liberation pipeline,” which describes the continuum between personal healing and systemic transformation. This framework is rooted in the belief that genuine collective liberation — the freedom, dignity, and thriving of all people — begins with individuals reclaiming their worth, tending to their wounds, decolonizing their minds and bodies, and dismantling the systems that teach self-neglect, shame, and internalized oppression as virtues.

Natasha emphasizes sacred self-love and holistic self-care as essential countermeasures to the psychological and embodied impacts of systemic oppression, particularly for individuals in marginalized communities. She posits that personal healing is a vital response and forms the foundation for the care, connection, and solidarity necessary to build and sustain effective social justice and liberation movements.

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 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 Johns Hopkins University Genetics and Public Policy Center.

Natasha was the co-founder and former executive director of RAISE IT UP! Youth Arts & Awareness, a former Regional Organizing Director for NextGen America, the former lead facilitator of the Michigan Youth Racial Equity Council (MYREC), and is currently the Culture and Advocacy Officer for the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH).

Her creative and community-based projects for these organizations have been featured 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 work is also highlighted in Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger, written by Dr. Julie Sze and published by University of California Press. 

Natasha’s leadership at RAISE IT UP! led to her being featured as a TEDx speaker, and the organization’s work being supported by renowned activist, author, and professor Dr. Angela Davis.

As a performer, Natasha has shared the stage with notable artists and activists, including the late bell hooks; 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, Danny Ryan Coogler, Ledisi, and Jesse Williams at the  BlackOut for Human Right’s Justice for Flint concert. 

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

Currently, Natasha is collaborating with renowned pianist and composer Adrienne Torf and award-winning poet Lisa Sarno to co-produce a community-based iteration of The Awesome Difficult Work of Love (ADWL). Inspired by the pioneering work of the late poet icon June Jordan and Adrienne Torf, ADWL blends poetry, theater, and music to explore themes of justice, intimacy, identity, and liberation, highlighting the transformative power of dialogue and collaboration across race, sexuality, discipline, and lived experience.

Natasha has been a lecturer, presenter, and speaker at numerous symposiums, 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, Building a Movement for Michigan (BAMM) PRIDE Summit, Sloan Museum, and more.

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

As an educator, Natasha currently serves as a teaching artist for The Resourceful Explorations through Artistic Creation and Harmony (REACH) initiative — a national program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that aims to enhance arts education in schools across the country. In this role, she has worked as an artistic consultant for the Chicago Academy for the Arts, Renaissance High School in Detroit, and schools in Flint, Michigan; Washington, D.C.; Columbia, South Carolina; and beyond. She is also a former teaching artist with Michigan Arts Access, where she promoted creativity, education, and accessibility to the arts for youth with disabilities.

Natasha is also an instructor for midnight & indigo, a boutique publisher and literary journal that amplifies the voices of Black women writers by providing a platform to share their stories. Specializing in short fiction and essays, midnight & indigo contributes to the Black literary tradition while elevating historically marginalized voices. There, Natasha teaches Narrative Essay Writing for Healing & Liberation, a course that explores writing as a transformative and empowering practice. She also developed and leads Women, Writing, & Resistance for Fellowship of the Griots,  which centers and celebrates the voices of Black writers and their allies.

Her contributions have been recognized through numerous honors. Natasha was selected as a Writer-in-Residence for Sea Salted Honey's 2024 Sojourn of Return Writing Residency in Dakar, Saly, and La Petite Côte, Senegal. She is also a past Windcall Institute Residency Awardee and one of three recipients of the inaugural $25,000 Impact Award from the Detroit Pistons Foundation, which recognized her outstanding leadership and community contributions in youth leadership and entertainment.

Natasha's spiritual work includes being an ordained wedding officiant, a certified Level III Usui Reiki Master, and an intuitive reader. 

Wearing many hats, Natasha's work bridges the inner work of healing with the outer work of justice. She believes that when individuals reclaim their worth, nurture their spirits, and live in alignment with their deepest truths, they create pathways toward collective freedom and transformation. Through writing, teaching, speaking, performance, ritual, and community practice, she cultivates spaces where self-love becomes a radical act of resistance and a foundation for solidarity. Guided by spirit, creativity, and care, Natasha continues to weave art, healing, and activism into a living practice of liberation — one rooted in love as both the method and the measure of freedom.

You can dive deeper into Natasha's writing, stories, and exclusive content on Substack. Subscribe here: natashaellethomas.substack.com.

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