SHE IS NIGHT

She Is Night is a literary and creative arts collective curated to reimagine a world beyond colorism.

Artwork: Dr. Sabiyha Prince

“When people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, we have often discovered that the doors are barred. Even the very act of dreaming of worlds-that-never-were can be challenging when the known world does not provide many liberating spaces.” 

– Professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, The Dark Fantastic 

She is Night

is a creative arts and public health initiative by Illuminated Cities designed to re-dream a world beyond colorism. We offer a series called Conversations on Colorism; curriculum that illuminates and prepares communities to address the intersectional impacts of colorism; and, creative arts programming to re-dream new worlds beyond its hold.

Artwork: Dr. Sabiyha Prince, She Is Night Advisor

What We Offer

Conversations on Colorism

In 2020, we started a series of conversations with our community about how colorism impacts them on a personal, systemic, and spiritual level. If you would like our team to host a Conversation on Colorism in your community, please reach out to our team.

Curriculum on Colorism

Our curriculum includes opportunities to deconstruct colorism and understand it from an intersectional lens: interior, public health, policy, environmental, and more. We offer our curriculum on colorism to students in classrooms, refugee camps, via online trainings, and on college campuses. Please connect with our team if you’d like to request a training.

Creative Arts Programming

We offer creative art programming to center artists and protagonists who shed light into the complexities of colorism in unique ways. Get in touch with our team to partner with us if you’d like to host an event in your community.

“But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes… No, I do not weep at the world–I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” - Zora Neale Hurston

Our Events

Artwork: Dr. Sabiyha Prince

  • Art for Ceasefire, Artists for Peace (Fall 2023, Harvard University)

  • Eid for Palestine: A Night of Storytelling, Music, and Art (Spring 2024, Harvard University)

  • Holes in the Wall: Storytelling, Music, and Art for Palestine (Spring 2024, M.I.T.)

  • Poetry of the Camps (Fall 2024, Gaza, Rohingya refugee camps, Harvard, M.I.T.)

Since 2024, She Is Night-HDS has been a recognized student organization at Harvard Divinity School.

Our most recent program, “Poetry of the Camps,” took place in four locations: Gaza, Rohingya refugee camps, MIT, and Harvard.

Artwork: Dr. Sabiyha Prince