Pious Ali
By Sara Lennon
On March 20th, the Portland Mayor and City Council approved the Proclamation Recognizing April 2023 as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month to “Invite residents of Portland to commemorate this solemn observance and recognize how much more we must do in the struggle against these unthinkable crimes against humanity.” The man behind this annual commemoration is Councilor Pious Ali. He wrote, “Many of our neighbors are victims and descendants of people who have been impacted by genocide. To all of them, please know that we are here with you, to learn and educate. The world community keeps saying never again while genocide is happening in many places across the world. I pray for a day when #neveragain means never again.”
How did a Muslim black man from Ghana become the one to lead this initiative? That’s a long and interesting story.
Pious grew up in Ghana, becoming a renowned photojournalist of citizens, celebrities, scenes from everyday life. He had found notoriety and success in his homeland but was always curious about history, eager to learn more about the Black experience in other countries. While in High School he frequented the W.E. Dubois Center where he read Malcolm X, Roots, and Dr. Martin Luther King’s teachings on non-violent resistance. At age 31, Pious wanted to expand himself, to venture out and learn more about the world. So he moved to New York City, where he found jobs in restaurants and retail stores to pay the rent—and continued to educate himself, discovering resources on the website Black Expression and tracking down books in the Mount Vernon Public Library.
In 2002, he visited a friend in Portland, and decided right then to move to this small city by the sea that he already loved.
Pious landed a position as a youth worker and later site coordinator with the peer leader program at the People Regional Opportunity Program (PROP, now named Opportunity Alliance) working in four of the city’s housing projects—Kennedy Park, Riverton Park, Sagamore and Front Street. These neighborhoods werre filled with a melting pot of people from all over the world who were in Maine building new lives. Pious got to know the families, chatting and listening to their stories. He took a particular interest in the youth who lived there, realizing they needed a place to meet one another and forge friendships. He had a second job at the Preble Street Teen Shelter. There he heard teenagers speak about being bullied by students at their school and feeling cut off. He realized they also needed a group of friends and a purpose. So he created the Maine Interfaith Youth Alliance, a group that invited students of all backgrounds and religions to get together and do good deeds for their community. He purposely brought in kids of every faith, race and nationality, gathering those living in the diverse Portland neighborhoods and helped them to get involved in projects that helped others. Together they washed dishes for the soup kitchen, offered a helping hand, and of course made friends with one another they could rely on in school.
A colleague’s father who was a facilitator at Seeds of Peace heard about Pious’ work with young people in the greater Portland area and invited him to apply as a summer facilitator with Maine Seeds of Peace, whose programs are rooted in dialogue, community, leadership, and action-taking. The in-person camp invites eleventh graders to spend two weeks at camp with other high-schoolers from different backgrounds, experiences, and identities. And then they partner with schools across the state year-round to foster positive relationships and more inclusive school cultures, asking SEEDs students to assume leadership positions in their schools and communities. Pious became an Educator and then a Gatherer Fellow in the international program. He is now a board member for Seeds of Peace.
In 2010 Pious and Maine Speaker of the House Rachel Talbot Ross co-founded of the King Fellows, a group dedicated to creating meaningful opportunities for youth through leadership and civic engagement. In addition, Pious dovetailed his work and founded Portland Empowered, an organization that creates opportunities for immigrant parents to understand how education works in the United States and collaborate with the school district to develop programs and services that improve learning for their children.
In 2011 Pious visited a friend in Israel and spent time in The Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem. There he learned more about the genocide and was struck by the parallels between antisemitism, racism, and violence. His belief, rooted in the teaching of Dr. King, that bringing people together for conversation, working for solutions that help all people creates the foundation to reduce bias, bigotry, and hatred. He returned to Maine reinvigorated to continue his work in justice and equity.
In 2017 Pious was awarded the Gerda Haas Award from the Holocaust and Human Rights Center for his demonstrated excellence and initiative in human rights education and leadership. In his acceptance presentation, he emphasized the urgency of people getting to know one another, creating relationships of trust and respect to end senseless prejudice. Afterward, Director Liz Helitzer invited him to join the HHRC Board of Directors, where he has served for six years. He observes, “I admire the work at the HHRC, particularly the educational programs. I don’t insert myself in the daily operations which are ably handled by the dedicated staff. My role is to offer myself as a resource, to say, ‘What do you need me to do? How can I help you with this initiative?’ I know a lot of people in Maine now; sometimes bringing people together is helpful, realizing that a group might benefit from connecting with another. This is a role I can play on the advisory boards where I’m a member.”
Concurrently, the political arena came calling. Because Pious had done so much work with youth, in 2013 he was encouraged to run for the Portland Board of Education and won, becoming the first African-born Muslim American to be elected to a public office in Maine. After three years, he ran and was elected to the City Council, where he still serves. Pious agreed to enter the political arena because he felt it could help put his core values into policy, and thus change some of the entrenched problems of inequality on a wider scale. He invites lots of different people into City Hall, people of many races and faiths who wouldn’t normally think about going there. He wants them to understand they belong, that government is for them too. “I don’t walk into the door of City Hall by myself,” he notes. “I want diverse voices at the table, a conversation among all ages, ethnicities, racial and cultural experiences.”
At age 54, Pious is building momentum. Portland Empowered is thriving, and he serves on many advisory groups and boards of directors, including Common Threads Maine, I’m Your Neighbor Books, Greater Portland METRO, the Holocaust and Human Right Center, Seeds of Peace, the Center for Regional Prosperity, AARP Maine, and the Maine Space Grant Consortium. Not to mention the dozens of groups he checks in on regularly, making sure they know he’s there to help. Pious spends time in coffee shops, on the phone, in meetings, walking through neighborhoods dropping in on friends to chat. Nothing delights him more than introducing folks to one another, convening impromptu gatherings to spark ideas that he will run with, spinning out plans and keeping people connected and moving forward.
Pious is quick to credit to others, sprinkling in names of the many people who have helped him on this journey of public service and living in his faith, of growing and discovering while bringing others along with him. He reflects on why he does what he does: “The third pillar of Islam is Zakat (charity) and serving people. Seeing a smile on people’s faces when I interact with them, that is Zakat. This is the fuel that keeps me going.”