ABOUT
The Beat of Blossoms is the creative work of Jamila Zahra Felton. Through book arts, mixed-media collage, printmaking, handmade paper, and creative writing,
Jamila explores memory, identity, love, self-care, power and Black futures.
See the beat. Let your creativity blossom.
Born in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Jamila began painting and creating mixed media collage while studying at Spelman College. Soon after, she developed a love for printmaking, pattern design, and bookbinding.
Jamila graduated from Spelman College with a B.A. in English and holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University and an M.L.I.S. from The Catholic University of America. A former Boston and DC public school teacher, Jamila works as a school librarian and has over twenty years of experience educating youth and adults.
Jamila's artist books and zines are in the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). Her artist book The Deep End: Or, Some of Us Learned How to Swim was on view in the NMWA Library's DMV Color Exhibition in 2019-2020. The exhibition may be viewed online. Jamila is a member of Pyramid Atlantic and was Pyramid's first-ever Vita Paper Arts Resident in summer 2018.
Jamila is also an editor and writer. Jamila's poetry is published in Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees, bum rush the page: a def poetry jam, Sally Hemings Dreams, and within her artist books and zines. Her visual art is published in Loam Magazine's Permaculture in Practice volume and MelaNation, Issue 1.
Jamila blossoms in the Washington, DC area with her husband Melvin A. Felton Jr, a scientist, musician, and author of Universe Within: The Surprising Way the Human Brain Models the Universe, and their sons Malcolm and Jahlil.
Photo Credit: Slingshot Video