Tasleem Jamila Firdausee

Tasleem Jamila Firdausee is an internationally award-winning poet, multi-disciplinary artist, interdisciplinary scholar, and holistic wellness coach who uses heart-centered storytelling to examine the intersections of culture, spirituality, and indigenous holistic healing modalities. She is the founder of My Soul Speaks Institute, Executive Director of Art As Sacred Initiative, and host of the Art As Sacred podcast. She has performed her works extensively across the US and in Senegal, Ghana, Canada, England, South Africa, and Malaysia, and she continues to tour worldwide.

Through her company, My Soul Speaks Institute, Tasleem is currently curating traveling holistic healing events "Supreme Self Love Project" and "I Am A Queen'' for women through performance, meditation, dhikr (chanting), visuals, sound baths, and installations. Her latest book, Black Baptist Muslim Mystic, has received excellent reviews and is used in classrooms across the US with her curriculum. The poems are brimming with wisdom on freedom, self-love, social justice for humanity, and spirituality. In addition, she recently released a new album, "Activated," which is her second studio album working with world-renowned producers Professor Griff of Public Enemy and Jazz MacArthur genius Reginald R. Robinson. Tasleem's play, Portals Open, was featured in the 2019 Chicago Hip-Hop Festival and chosen for the Pan African Art Festival in South Africa in 2020.

Firdausee' is a sought-after public speaker creating performance lectures and personalized workshop experiences on art such as healing, Black women in religion, Sufism, the art of spoken word, Hip-Hop education, empowering youth voices, and inter-faith connections. In addition, she was a radio host and co-producer of a weekly radio program for ten years, which aired on WCEV, Chicago, where she interviewed hundreds of guests worldwide for ten years. The most notable icons she interviewed are First Lady Michelle Obama, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, and Public Enemy. Firdausee's media features include the Chicago Tribune, Muslim Journal, Chicago Daily, and on BBC, NPR, WKKC (Chicago), ABC-Channel 7 (Chicago), and many media outlets in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

Tasleem graduated with a Master of Arts in Spirituality, Culture & Health and a graduate certificate in Holistic Approaches to Mindfulness from Western Michigan University and obtained a Bachelor's degree in Complementary & Alternative Health. She is also a Registered and Certified Yoga Teacher, Holistic Health Practitioner and currently completing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Spirituality & Healing/Sufism/Black Women in Religion). Additionally, Tasleem has studied Islam and Arabic with traditional master teachers.