In our ongoing salute to Code Z's outstanding volunteer staff, we decided it was time to show some love to one of our OE's (Original Editors).
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn came aboard Code Z before our launch last August and has been writing for the Z ever since. She is a self-taught photographer who is very active in the New York art scene. She received her first official assignment as a photographer, The Million Woman March, at the age of 17 in 1997. Since then, her images have been published and exhibited in several art spaces such as the Latin Collector Gallery, The Museum of Contemporary Art DC, and Danny Simmons' Corridor Gallery where her work is currently on view. Her photography has been included in the photo-anthology, BLACK: A Celebration of a Culture, co-published by the Smithsonian and edited by Deborah Willis, and privately collected by art enthusiasts and collectors.
Although she enjoys the art of photography, her first love is essay writing and creative non-fiction. As a writer, she has been on assignment in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, covering jazz and the arts. Her journalism has appeared in Vibe, The Source, America, Complex, Essence and other publications. Last year the Jazz Journalism Association awarded her the Atkins Fellowship for jazz journalism. Her essay "Moving On" was included in the anthology My Soul to His Spirit. Laylah is a native New Yorker residing in Brooklyn.
