2022 Juanita J Craft Artist Residency Recipient
Linda Jones is an award-winning old school journalist who navigates new media, and she is a global citizen who celebrates diversity through advocacy. As a freelance writing consultant, and owner of Mane Lock Communications, LLC. She is known professionally as a βwriting doula,β and specializes in writing that helps clients tell better stories, preserve legacy and promote emotional well-being and self-care. Lindaβs has been a staff writer or freelance contributor for many publications, including the Detroit News, Daily Beast, BlackAmericanNews.com, Dallas Morning News, USA Today Weekend, People, Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, AOL News, and Agence France Press.
Writing about ordinary people making differences in underserved communities has been her most gratifying work, as well as writing culturally oriented stories with an African-centered and global reach. She has written about Jamaican Rastafarians, Trinidadian Calypsonians, Afro Germans in East Berlin, Black Hebrews in Israel, Afro Cubans in Havana and Haitian residents, refugees, and would-be revolutionaries. She covered the historic South Africa nonracial elections in 1994. As a young summer volunteer for Operation Crossroads Africa, Linda worked on agricultural and construction projects in Ghana, clearing farmland using machetes to making bricks for use in building a foundation for a village school.
As founder of A Nappy Hair Affair, Linda has encouraged self-appreciation and promotes the choice to wear natural and African-inspired hairstyles without discriminatory backlash. In her spare times Linda enjoys engaging in a more rhythmic form of communication – playing African drums.
Portfolio: https://www.thewritingdoula.com/
