Furaha Henry-Jones
Writer and professor Furaha Henry-Jones has taught in public high schools and prisons, GED programs and college courses, charter schools for out-of-school youth, and migrant education programs to name a few. Her passion for helping people learn about themselves and others through the written word began in classrooms, but has extended into life beyond formal educational settings. Though she is commonly known for writing poetry, her most recent work has centered on the oral performance of personal narrative poems and storytelling.
Currently, she is an Associate Professor of English at Sinclair Community College where she has also served as co-founder of the Ubuntu South Africa Study Abroad Program, director of the Annual Sinclair Writers’ Workshop, co-chair of the Center for Teaching and Learning Diversity and Inclusion Professional Development Track and member of the college’s American Council on Education’s Internationalization Lab Committee.
Nearly two decades ago, Furaha Henry-Jones invested in her writing as a member of Dayton’s first National Poetry Slam Team. She has since become the Sinclair Poet Laureate and a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Poetry. Her theatre work has included voice overs, narration, poetry performance, stage management and acting for various productions including, but not limited to Poetry at Durban Playhouse, The Signature Poetic Medley Show, A Song for Coretta, and One Sunday in Birmingham, Harriet: Navigation, Live and Thrive and Four Women: A Tribute to Nina Simone and the Black Arts Movement. Additionally, she has been a speaker for the University of Dayton Global Voices Symposium, a Dayton TEDx speaker, a featured presenter at University of Dayton Lit Fest, Dayton Art Institute, Antioch College’s Herndon Gallery and Coretta Scott King Center as well as a presenter at the Community College Humanities Association 2018 Conference in Baltimore and, League of Innovation 2019 Conference in New York.
Furaha Henry-Jones has continued her personal growth and development through community work such as co-chairing the 35th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr Youth Prose, Poetry, and Art Contest, working as a founding member of a parent organization aimed at supporting and advocating for Black and multiracial youth in Centerville, and participating in the 2018 Cohort of the Women’s Leadership Collaborative of Greater Dayton.