Raised in a smog-engulfed SoCal suburb and born to Syrian parents (a Halabi-bedouin father and Latakia-descent, Beiruti raised mother), May's first steps were taken to the beat of Mouhamad Housein's "Maryam, Maryamti."At the tender age of 5, May's ra'asa moves to traditional Arabic music were in high demand for Arab weddings as she finger-cymbal-ed her way into the community's heart.

Later abandoning that dream of shimmying to the status of Samia Gamel super stardom, May focused on her second love to the arts, community organizing around political and social justice issues and human rights concerns. As a UCLA student majoring in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations and minor in Arabic and Islamic Studies, she interned with her local Congressman the Fall of 2001, and later with "Rock the Vote" and organized with Arab and African American student groups on campus.

During her residency in New York City, while completing a Masters in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, May, researched Malcolm X's relationship with Arab, Islamic and African leaders for esteemed African American historian Dr. Manning Marable's Columbia University based Malcolm X Project and upcoming book on the American Muslim freedom fighter. Her thesis focused on Black-Arab Islamic Relations in the US from the 1960s to the present, examining third world Arab-African unity rhetoric of the 1960s, and, in the present context, the interactions of both communities at liquor stores and in religious authority discourse, and solidarity-building through hip hop linguistic exchange. Also, as a member of Blackout Arts collective, she co-facilitated arts-based critical literacy workshops for juvenile youth at Rikers Island known as "Lyrics on Lockdown."

After moving back to Los Angeles, May helped coordinate the Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles, worked as a Consultant for USC's American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, and has currently taken up a post as a Lead Consultant and VP of operations for a media-focused cultural consulting agency, Jones Culture. Owing to her Syrian work ethic and an insatiable hunger for the arts, May has added more akal to her plate by serving as the Los Angeles Coordinator, and performer for the nationally and internationally-toured underground hit play, "The Hijabi Monologues."

May is indebted for many lunar years for the profuse media opportunities her involvement as a contributing writer for KABOBfest has afforded her, the most notable being her gig as a co-host on "What's Happening." As a result of this, her grassroots organizing, and unique research experience, May frequently appears as a commentator on a multitude of media outlets - television, radio, and print - to discuss topics such as the History of Islam in America, Arab-Americans, Muslim-Americans, and Islam in Blackamerica

The former ra'asa will be starting her PhD in American Studies and Ethnicity at USC Fall 2009.