Akilah Toney is an 18 year old published writer, poet, dancer, photographer, and youth advocate from New Orleans, Louisiana. From writing and dancing at the age of 10, Akilah uses the arts as a means to amplify her experiences at the intersections of young Black womanhood in the south. Akilah has been honored as the 2016 Pizza Poetry Laureate of New Orleans, the 2018 Grand Slam Poetry Champion of New Orleans, a recipient of 2017 and 2018 National Scholastic Gold Key Award, a 2018 American Voices Nominee, a 2018 National Student Poets semi-finalist, the 2018 Umbra Award, and the 2019 Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Key and Silver Key Award. Akilah has been featured in 826 New Orleans publications, Umbra, Medium’s Heated magazine. Nola.com, Vogue.com, and the New York Times.