JLove Calderon: author • educator • activist
As an author, educator, activist, and Certified Empowerment Facilitator, JLove Calderón has worked passionately on social justice, race, and gender issues for over 15 years. In settings that range from hip-hop ciphers to the college classroom, JLove is widely respected for her advocacy of “truth, love, and freedom” for everyday people, especially young people, women and girls, and lovers of hip hop culture.
JLove has authored four books: We Got Issues! with Rha Goddess; That White Girl (optioned for film); Conscious Women Rock the Page! Using Hip-Hop Fiction to Incite Social Change (nominated for a NAACP Image Award) with Marcella Runell Hall, E-Fierce, and Black Artemis; and Love, Race, and Liberation; ‘Til the White Day is Done with Marcella Runell Hall. Her articles on hip-hop culture, white privilege, and social justice have appeared in The New York Times, Self Magazine, The Source Magazine, among other traditional and new media outlets. She has also contributed to two anthologies: Who’s Your Mama? The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers (edited by Yvonne Bynoe), and The Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Literature (edited by Tarshia L. Stanley).
As an activist and personal life coach, JLove has helped create practical models for living that are designed to empower people of all backgrounds. Her knowledge is informed by her years of working as a counselor in teen shelters. She has also taught at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice for over a decade.
For her consistent dedication, JLove has received numerous awards, including the Union Square Award for her activism, and Self Magazine’s Self Starter of the Year Award. Her work keeps her on the national lecture circuit where she speaks regularly at conferences and colleges, including Harvard, UCLA, Columbia, and many others.
JLove graduated Cum Laude from San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Africana Studies and received her Master’s Degree in Education from Long Island University. Currently, she lives in New York with her husband Hectór Calderón and their two sons.