Founder
NuGyrl Foundation and NoirLire Publishing
Alicia Smith is the founder of the NuGyrl Foundation and Noir Lire Publishing. The NuGyrl Foundation was created to help young, at-risk, African American women who struggle with issues that limit their ability to function as viable assets to their communities. Smith uses her publishing company as a catalyst through which the young women are able to express themselves by and through the use of literature.
As a victim of child rape and abandonment, Smith saw the damage these traumas continue to create, if left unaddressed. The need to treat the whole person became her goal. She also works with a team responsible for teaching a group of women in Africa, who are illiterate and live with AIDS, the values of self-worth and empowerment.