AYO SEKAI, PH.D.

Poetical Scientist & Linguistic Activist

Dr. Ayo Sekai is CEO and publisher of Universal Write Publications, LLC. Since founding UWP in 2004, Sekai has prioritized publishing academic titles that demonstrate a commitment to African agency. UWP Books share the legacy of diasporic people by implementing cultural strategy through African narratives. UWP’s mission is to provide space in publishing peer-reviewed work with high Academic Excellence for Black scholars in the academy and bridging the gap by preparing succession planning for young emerging scholars as they learn from senior established scholars.
 

In the legacy of prominent Howard University scholars, such as Vice-President Kamala Harris,(who shares Sekai’s Jamaican heritage); Chadwick Boseman, Ron Walters, and Ralph Bunche,Sekai is a proud Howard University Ph.D. alum, from the Department of Political Science. Her research specializations are Black Politics and International Relations. As a linguistic activist,she is keenly attuned to social justice corrupted by “dog whistle” and racist rhetoric in politics and linguistic imperialism framed through language inequity and inequality, law, immigration,public policy, and education as it relates to Black and Brown people.Sekai is intentional about corporate responsibility and community engagement.
 

She is a board member of Friendly Law, an organization that focuses on helping pre-law students pass the barby providing financial and academic resources; and a Women’s Wing, an organization focused on helping women reintegrate into society for a second chance at life after serving time. She is an Activist Scholar, using her spoken word coined, Poetical Scientist, playing on her love for poetry and with her political science education. As a Linguistic Activist, Sekai use the power of words,writing, her personal publications and publishing company, to bring light to disparities and social justice movement by TELLING OUR OWN STORIES!
 

She worked as an associate publisher and executive editor in New York City and was editor of 5ive Borough Magazine, New York’s premier hip hop magazine. Sekai began her film experience,fiction writing, and poetry in New York, where she also taught in the public school system as an English teacher.