Walidah Imarisha (Amharic: ወሊዳ ኢማሪሻ) is an American writer, activist, educator and spoken word artist.

Imarisha is the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars (Drapetomedia, 2013)[3] and the nonfiction book focused on criminal justice issues, Angels with Dirty Faces: Dreaming Beyond Bars (AK Press/IAS, 2016), which won the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.

She was a member of the poetry duo Good Sista/Bad Sista, and appeared on Puerto Rican punk band Ricanstruction's second album, Love and Revolution.

[4] Imarisha was also one of the founders, and the first editor, of the political hip hop publication AWOL Magazine.

She served on the editorial board for the national Left Turn Magazine, and was the director and co-producer of the Katrina documentary Finding Common Ground in New Orleans.