Artist and activist, New Voices Fellow Shani O'Neal uses cultural work to teach students at historically black colleges and universities about black activism in an international and intergenerational context.

And for the past two years, she has lent her skills to International Possibilities Unlimited (IPU) as a New Voices Fellow. Founded in 1997, IPU works to build a global network linking people of African descent in the United States to social justice struggles throughout the world.

IPU is an excellent fit for O'Neal, whose understanding of youth culture and concern for young people of color brings new possibilities to social justice efforts. As project director of IPU's young adult human rights initiative, O'Neal works to make connections between the power of youth culture and the need for more leaders of color in the social justice movement.

O'Neal designed and directs The Art of Activism, a bi-weekly seminar series that works with students at historically black colleges and universities to fuse cultural work and political activism in an intergenerational and international human rights context. "The goal of the seminars is to merge the arts such as hip-hop, spoken word, and film with international affairs issues," O'Neal explains. "The composition of both the panels and the audience works to bridge the divide between campus and the community, between generations, and between genders."

The seminars, held on the campus of Howard University, cover issues such as African American activism in international arenas, police brutality, the black English debate, and social justice in health care and education.

Distinguished contributors have included academics, politicians, poets, grassroots activists, students, and community workers such as U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr., presidential candidate Denis Kucinich, Dr. Raymond Winbush, Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Makani Themba Nixon, Dr. Ramona Edelin, Dr. Rania Masri, Dr. Sylvia Hill, DJ Renegade, Dr. Clarence Lusane, Damu Smith, IPU founder Dr. Deborah Robinson, and more.

She also has led several initiatives that have enhanced young people of color's participation in world affairs, including traveling to Geneva, Switzerland to speak at the United Nations' Commission on Human Rights about racism in the United States. She has given presentations at several key forums, including a panel on juvenile justice for the Southern Human Rights Organizers Conference, leading workshops on art and activism at national conferences like Movement Beyond Borders and for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and speaking at the nationally televised 40th Anniversary of the March on Washington.

She helped edit Cry of the Excluded, a journal disseminated during the World Summit on Sustainable Development. She also participated in a focus group hosted by the Open Society Institute to support the Hip-Hop Social Action Tour. In preparation for her current work she received certification from the prestigious International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

A graduate of Spelman College, O'Neal holds a Masters degree in African Diaspora Cultural Studies from UCLA. A Fulbright Scholar who has traveled to more than 20 countries, her varied
accomplishments include volunteer teaching in Central Africa, researching women’s activism with the University of the West Indies Centre for Gender and Development Studies, & co-founding both a school library in Gabon and a poetry collective in Trinidad.

O'Neal is a lecturer and writer on the hip hop generation, gender, African American culture, and social justice. She has appeared on C-Span and numerous radio shows, spoken at top universities including Harvard and Howard, and addressed the body of governmental delegates at the 2003 United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Her publishing credits include contributions to The Encyclopedia of Sociology; Colonize This! Young Women of Color and Today’s Feminism; Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology; and Sometimes Rhythm, Sometimes Blues: Young African Americans on Love, Relationships, Sex, and the Search for Mr. Right.