Akiemi Glenn, PHD

Raised in the rural US South with genealogical ties to the forests and coastal areas of lands now known North Carolina and Virginia, Dr. Akiemi Glenn is a Honolulu-based Afro-Indigenous Southerner whose research, curation, and community work continues to shape conversations around race, place, language, and belonging in Oceania, the Americas, and beyond. Her approach is rooted in community-driven research and a commitment to liberation.

With a PhD in Linguistics, from the University of Hawai'ʻi at Mānoa, Akiemi brings deep expertise in Indigenous language revitalization, archival practice, and creative media. She has contributed to language documentation and preservation efforts across the Pacific, including her work with language programs serving the Tokelauan diaspora, countering the institutional invisibility of this Pacific Indigenous refugee population.

She is the founder and executive director of the Pōpolo Project, a Hawai‘i-based nonprofit that uplifts the lived experiences of Black people in the islands through storytelling, public art, and community-centered archives.

She is the co-founder and principal at Hawaiʻi Strategy Lab, a research and data access endeavor that brings together data and culture in the service of social justice and re-centers models of leadership and expertise in Hawai’i

A second generation filmmaker, Akiemi’s creative practice spans documentary storytelling, visual design, and public programming. She curates spaces, both physical and digital, where histories are reclaimed, and new narratives are born.

Whether through public speaking, collaborative exhibitions, or cultural strategy consulting, her work invites people to see differently, feel deeply, and act boldly.