Hasna Muhammad

“I was parented into the movement, which at times took place in our home in New Rochelle, New York where my Mom and Dad translated, transposed, and transformed their art into activism not just for “The People,” but also for my sister, brother, and me. That’s where Mom helped us understand why Mamie Till-Mobley placed the body of her young son in an open casket. That’s where Daddy helped us make meaning of the decade of assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy. Our home was our training ground, the place where we learned about what we as a people, as a family, and as individuals must do in this continuing fight for justice. We were not the dreamers, they told us. We were the doers. 

We grew up knowing that we had a place in the relentless fight for justice just as we knew we had to make our beds and brush our teeth. While our parents were meeting, planning, speaking, and marching in the streets, we were right there with them. We carried our signs and sang the songs of our charge to “keep on a-walking, keep on a-talking, marching up to freedom’s land.” That’s what we saw our parents doing, and that’s what we learned to do.”

Hasna Muhammad is a visual artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on family, social justice, and the human condition. As an advocate for education as justice, Hasna provides professional preparation for executive leadership, diversity management, and community engagement for the purpose of diversifying educational and political leadership forces. Hasna is a 2018-2019 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fellow.