We were lucky to catch up with Saladin Allah recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Saladin, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
What some would consider resilience, I define as anti-fragility. Anti-fragility goes beyond our ability to withstand a shock or traumatic event, it’s our ability to improve our lives and strengthen ourselves through of it. Similarly, a broken bone becomes stronger when it heals. I am a proud ascendant from a long line of ancestors who were not just resilient, but the definition of anti-fragility. Thus it is literally within my DNA.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am the third-great grandson of famed underground railroad Freedom Seeker Josiah Henson whom Harriet Beecher Stowe used as the primary narrative for her famous 19th Century novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A Father of three amazing girls, Asiyah, Aziza, and Anusha, I am also the founder of the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters; an early childhood learning center in Niagara Falls, NY.
During my years as a freelance writer/radio host and twenty-two years as a youth advocate, I have been globally published in print and online in a wide range of publications and have created numerous youth programs, projects, and initiatives. Through my Atlantis School website, I have published 350+ articles and authored twenty-three books through Quanaah Publishing. Five of these books are part of a Curatorial Activism archive in the British Library. Additionally, SI have recorded four full-length albums, worked as a program consultant for an episode of the History Channel series ‘Gangland’, and have been globally cited as a cultural subject-matter expert on Jay-Z’s cultural affiliations.
In 2017 I was nominated for the 21st Century Scholarship award at the 2nd Annual BP Awards in Atlanta, GA. In 2018 as a part of the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters, I created seven online Youth Outreach Development courses, a Boys As Allies Rights of Passage Program, and Roku/Amazon Direct family-friendly animation series. I am the Niagara Falls’ 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Achievement Award Recipient and a featured historian in the 2019 IMAX Film ‘Into America’s Wild’ narrated by Morgan Freeman and hosted by Ariel Tweto and John Herrington. In 2020 I was again a featured historian in the six part award-winning docuseries ‘Enslaved’ executive produced and starring Samuel L. Jackson and directed by three-time Emmy award-winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici. I was a featured educator in a 2022 United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery short doc, a featured historian in ‘Secrets Agents of the Underground Railroad’; The Nature of Things CBC documentary directed by Adrian Callendar, and a producer/featured historian of the Buffalo & Erie County Naval Park exhibit and documentary Two Wars: The Road to Integration.
I am currently the Director of Community Engagement at the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, Public Art Coordinator for the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area, Director of the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters, and a Commissioner for the Human Rights Commission in the City of Niagara Falls, New York.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back, three qualities, skills or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey are knowledge of self, discipline, and a consistent work ethic. In addition to other equally important qualities, skills, and areas of knowledge, knowledge of self, discipline, and a consistent work ethic have enabled me to be continually successful in my undertakings. Knowledge of self is the cultural foundation and essence of who I am, which I learned through my Nation of the Five Percent. Discipline or my sense of self-regulation and control has enabled me to learn, grow, develop, and teach the best of who and what I am. None of this would be possible without a consistent work ethic. My advice for folks on how they can best develop or improve on these is to establish relationships with those who live it. If you want to be a music producer or sound engineer, you need to be amongst and learn from those who produce and engineer sound. Want to do art? Have relationships with artists to learn. The idea of being “self-made” is a myth.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
There is not just one “Who” who has been most helpful in helping me overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities, or knowledge I need(ed) to be successful. My parents, siblings, cousins, friends, relationship partners, neighbors, professional colleagues, work associates, folks I met on a plane, preschoolers I taught, college football teammates, people I’ve met at conferences, on vacation, at a restaurant, etc. have all shared insights with me to help overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills. Sometimes it’s not a “Who” but a “What”, “Where”, “How”, and “When” that have helped me. As a scientist of life, I am a student and open to the fact that every life experience is a potential classroom.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://atlantisschool.blogspot.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AtlantisBuild/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saladin.allah/
- Linkedin: Saladin Quanaah Allah
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AtlantisBuild/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/quanaah
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/atlantisbuild
Image Credits
Saladin Allah
