In this animation, we recall that our power of ownership lies in our hands. Between long nails - not clutching, not gripping, but knowing - we honor the importance of being centered: centering your own point of view, centering your own name, in the face of antiblack colonial erasure.

In this animation, we consider the emptiness of accolades from colonizing institutions. in the background, we see the abundance of nature - and the continual destruction of community. and then suddenly, for the talented tenth, a crown.

Deeply Influenced bySevere Paper: and their ongoing box of collage "hand-me-downs", this animation considers the ongoing communal work in reclaiming what was left overs -- in finding art in the residue, to look through the cut-up, the old, the abandoned to create something new.

As this is a piece of "retroactive-reparations" (Jean) Maliya centers the responsive of the archived, addresses the historical exploitation of the feminine - the witnessed, the perceived - as an offering to Black folks erased and unconsidered in the inherently racist and dehumanizing form of film.

Maliya uses burn marks in the film, similar to the burn experiences of the pivotal gas explosion of her life, as a tactic of healing -- because sometimes, destruction is the healing needed.

A teaching work discusses the unmet need that impacts Black folks globally - from New York to Congo: themes of self-actualization and self-witnessing in an empowering point of view. Liberation and freedom through art is a major theme of Maliya's work, so we find her students collaborate as first-time producers and directors in artist activism.

In South Africa, Capetown --

To be remembered, to stay clean and tidy, to make sure your elbows, knees and face are moisturized.
A school portrait - the pride of receiving an education. The audacity of low-income schools to offer no tokens of remembrance of the children who walked those halls. To assume those faces in turtlenecks and hair beads is not something worthy of witness. To be the one to capture those moments on iPhone screens, to offer free and framed portraits of 400 students for the first time. To remember the young who will grow to be old. The old who will look to that photo, recall the lesson, memories, friends, dreams and wishes of that age.

To all be remembered.

https://www.zachlouw.com/7580879-school-portrait-project

A lot of maliya's work is retroactive. In this instance, she cares for her young childhood self, soothing the self that was ostracized in South Africa after moving there from the Congo. In this affirmative coloring book practice, the sketches are donated and collated, and then filled in by groups of children, adults, whoever may need. this goes along with maliya's major narrative: inner child work, to heal not only oneself, but to empathetically offer healing work for children as a communal practice - revolutionary on Ugandan refugee land, to experience and cultivate unity, healing, rest/restoration, and peace, in one of the only countries not currently in war. Meditation in the midst of global colonization.

In this, we witness an intimate character portrayal of a legend in the New York photography world - if only they take the moment to look at Louis Mendes and say hello.

Screenings at :
PATOIS: The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival , April 2022
DOC NYC 2020
Truth Be Told 2021
Sundance 2022

In Soukous, we consider themes of yearning across the diaspora, focusing on the small but mighty Congolese community in New York bolstering their ancestral knowledge in dance.

In this personal observation, I witnessed for the first time freedom of assembly in New York, from Venezuela to The Wall - and was dizzied by the multidimensional discourse in the hands of the people.

It's nice to exist. To not be a thesis, a project, an explanation, a justification. To cook. To chat. To observe.

We watch life on the subway. Before. Spring 2019.

In this partner video with classmate, we explore and remember our homelands - rearing up moments of joy, nostalgia, and shame.

Commissioned piece for the United Nations

A short commission encouraging and understanding "why we protest."