Alia was born August 12th, 1986 making her a Leo. It became apparent almost immediately that she was special. She was born with an extremely rare birth defect called Amniotic Banding, making her literally 1 in a million. Half of the 1 in 10,000 babies born with it are born dead; others have noticeable defects, no limbs, or worse. Alia grew to function perfectly normal. Blessed with the gift of life when she may have very well not made it through, Alia grew into an incredibly active little girl, always the belle of the ball and always jubilant. She was no stranger to attention; she's always craved it and always will. From the outside, Alia's parents were just fine, but on the inside things were bulging ready to burst out of the seams. Her parents divorced at the age of 6 and her mother accepted a job as Human Resources Manager of Wal-Mart's home office, moving Alia and her siblings to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Alia was young and impressionable and though the move was difficult, she made friends that she still remembers to this very day. The move, however, was not so easy for her brother, Andre, or her sister Adrienne. Adrienne didn't respond so well but she rebounded she went to the University of Southern California where she majored in Business Administration. Andre, however, didn't do so well and encountered numerous problems that he could not overcome. He was sent to Seattle in order to complete high school, but rebelled and went to our childhood home in Tacoma where he would eventually get gunned down due to gang violence on the 4th of July. Alia was 8 years old.
It was when she returned to school the following year, that a teacher whose son used to play basketball with Andre encouraged Alia to write poetry based off of her past memories and experiences with her brother. Alia, who had always had a gift with words then discovered that she had a gift and a voice filled with wisdom far beyond her years, from that point on, there was no turning back.
The year following Andre’s death, Alia’s mother moved yet again, this time to Little Rock, Arkansas. Growing up, Alia dealt with self-esteem issues that stemmed from several surgeries on her arm, and fluctuating weight. She endured teasing, taunting, and feeling out of place because she was a chocolate girl raised in a vanilla world. She was too black to be friends with the white children and not black enough to be accepted by the black children. This was all fuel for the fire coursing through her veins. Alia graduated from Parkview Arts/Sciences Magnet High School in 2004 and began attending UALR, where she remains.
Alia began writing at the age of 8 and from 1995 to 2005 her work has improved and compounded. She compiled all of her work and submitted her work for publication. Her manuscript was accepted for publication on September 16th, 2006. Shiri: Song of my Soul promises to be just the first of many books to come. Poetry is in the spotlight, but it isn’t Alia’s only talent! Alia sings quite beautifully, and has been featured in the work of Wrich and Tmolja’s song celebrating their daughters. In addition to singing, she dances, and is quite the unexpected artist.
She has found at home at Mediums Art Gallery and performs there regularly.
