Rita Omokha is an award-winning Nigerian American journalist in New York City. She was born and spent her early childhood in Benin City, Edo State. Her research, writing, and commentary on politics, race, and vulnerable communities have been featured in several publications and outlets, including CNN, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Elle, Glamour, The Guardian, MSNBC, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and WIRED. She has written about policing in America, federal inaction on growing numbers of COVID orphans, and missing and murdered Indigenous women.
She’s an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she graduated at the top of the 2020 class, receiving some of the institution’s highest awards, including the Pulitzer Prize Traveling Fellowship. During her time at Columbia, she served as co-president of the African Student Association, which spotlighted the intersection of journalism, press freedom, and the African diaspora. She previously worked in digital media for CNN, NBC, and Viacom and served in AmeriCorps in 2013.
Resist: How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America is her critically acclaimed debut book. She lives in Manhattan.
2025 Festival Session