Mariah Parker

Mariah Parker, PhD, is a linguist, cultural strategist, and public voice who brings unmatched clarity, creativity, and energy to conversations about language, leadership, labor, and change. With a rare ability to move between academic insight, cultural storytelling, and movement experience, Parker is a speaker who leaves audiences energized, informed, and inspired to act.

Known on stage and in the streets as Linqua Franqa, Parker is a nationally-recognized rapper and former Georgia County Commissioner whose viral 2018 swearing-in photo—hand on The Autobiography of Malcolm X, held by their mother—became an iconic image of a new generation of Southern leadership. During their time in office, they championed bold policy initiatives, including minimum wage reform and community-centered alternatives to policing, before transitioning into full-time labor organizing with the Fight for $15 and a Union.

With a PhD in linguistics, Parker brings a deep understanding of how language shapes our culture, institutions, and daily lives. They help audiences unpack the power of messaging, the evolution of political language, and how words influence everything from workplace culture to public trust. Their insight is matched by their presence—equal parts sharp, grounded, and electrifying.

As a performer and cultural commentator, Parker has been featured in Rolling Stone, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, Teen Vogue, The Nation, and more. Their music, including the acclaimed album Bellringer, tackles themes of mental health, inequality, and resilience with lyrical brilliance and emotional force.

Their book, "No Cop City, No Cop World," co-edited with Micah Herskind and Kamau Franklin, is a powerful archive of the people’s movement to stop the construction of Atlanta’s Cop City—offering a window into grassroots resistance, radical imagination, and the fight for a liveable planet for all.