Biography
Kalamu ya Salaam (b. 24 March 1947) is a writer, editor, photographer, and retired educator. He and Ayo Fayemi-Robinson founded Runagate Press, which produces a series of New Orleans writers. Runagate publishes in partnership with the University of New Orleans Press (UNO Press). Salaam edited New Orleans Griot: The Tom Dent Reader (2018), which was the 2020 One Book/One New Orleans selection. His latest book of essays, Be About Beauty (2018), won the PEN Oakland award in 2019. Recent Runagate publications include Louisiana Midrash by Marian D. Moore and I Feel To Believe by Jarvis DeBerry. Publications in 2021 are I Am New Orleans - 36 poets revisit Marcus Christian’s definitive poem and Cosmic Deputy, a 50 year retrospective of poetry by Kalamu ya Salaam.
Salaam was born Vallery Ferdinand III in the lower ninth ward of New Orleans. He is a veteran who served on a nuclear missile base in South Korea. He was appointed to both the jazz and literature panels of the National Endowment of the Arts. He has been employed as the director of the Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Health Center, the executive director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, and for thirteen years as the editor of the Black Collegian Magazine.
Research
SEEING BLACK—Photography In New Orleans 1840 and Beyond is a multimedia project chronicling and celebrating the history, influence, and performative aesthetic of Black photography in New Orleans.
SEEING BLACK explores the intellectual, cultural, ephemeral, and innovative versatility of historical and contemporary Black photography. Existing in three forms--a book, website, and exhibition, SEEING BLACK will present work ranging from pre-Civil War beginning to twenty-first-century examples. The publication of a 200-page fine art book, in partnership with the University of New Orleans Press, will take place in the Spring of 2022, followed by the launch of an interactive website. Artistic creators Kalamu ya Salam and Eric Waters will present an exhibition of the same name as part of the book launch. SEEING BLACK will serve as both a revelation and corrective, filling a critical gap in preserving, documenting, and acknowledging Black photographers' contributions to the genre since 1840.
