By Damiete Braide, Lagos
Award-winning screenwriter and Filmmaker, Noni Salma, who is passionate about decolonizing narratives of black and brown trans, queer folks by centering them in her writing in ways that are fresh, inspiring and kicking, has been named the publisher of Urashi, an imprint of Abibiman Publishing, a Pan-African publishing firm, registered in the UK, US, Nigeria and India.
Salma made the nomination list for ‘The Future Awards Africa Prize for Screen Producer’ in 2018 and Best of Nollywood Award 2018 for her screenplay in the movie: We don’t live here anymore.
Her Personal essay “My daddy’s daughter” won 2nd place Queer West African Women’s Writing Contest 2021. She is one of the seven Transgender writers on the 2022 GLAAD list for her comedy pilot, BADASS. She’s also a LGBTQ+ activist who has been a panelist with Princeton University and the United Nations.
Urashi is named after the Igbo deity and its first publication will be Michael McCloud’s memoir, ‘Black Butterfly,’ due out in March of 2024 in the UK. Urashi is also the LGBTQ+ imprint of Abibiman Publishing.