Born to activist parents and raised in Washington D.C. in the 1980s, Sekou Coleman is a child of the movement. After obtaining a degree in music from the University of Pittsburgh, he founded a program to teach music theory and business to at-risk youth. His work with the program attracted the attention of a national nonprofit devoted to improving opportunities for black men and boys, and he worked there from 1998 until it ceased operations.

Coleman moved to Asheville in 2011 and quickly involved himself in the local community, supporting numerous organizations and advocacy groups. A deep believer in the restorative power of the arts, Coleman currently serves as the Executive Director for Asheville Writers in the Schools, a nonprofit igniting social change through culture and self-expression. Asheville Writers in the Schools is the parent organization for Word on the Street/Voz de les Jóvenes, a program uplifting the stories and voices of marginalized teens. As a volunteer, Coleman also devotes considerable time to CoThinkk, an organization that combats systemic racism in Western North Carolina; Bountiful Cities, which promotes urban agriculture; and Journeymen, a community of men nurturing adolescent boys on their paths to adulthood.