The Conspiracy Mixtapes film explores conspiracy theories among Black Americans as a type of vernacular theory grounded in critical understandings of racialized oppression. In the U.S., Black people have experienced all manner of atrocities justified by the social construction of race. Many of these cruelties can be understood as real conspiracies —or coordinated secret plots to do something unlawful or harmful, most often for political gain. From redlining practices intended to maintain segregation, to the FBI’s infiltration and disintegration of Black radical groups to thwart growing Black political power, systemic racism often manifests as actual anti-Black conspiracies.

Given their lived experiences and deep knowledge of the U.S.’s centuries-long history of anti-Black oppression, Black folks often develop conspiracy theories about what anti-Black, racist plots might be underway. This film utilizes interviews, archival research, and a listening-party-as-focus-group to jump through time and document and re-animate critical perspectives theorizing the CIA-Contra-Crack Conspiracy. In doing so, the film draws on Black oral traditions, sonic memory, and historical documentation to illustrate how conspiracy theorizing functions as both a mode of survival and a challenge to dominant narratives of racialized oppression.

EMBERS is a Black feminist zine collaboration I am currently working on alongside New Orleans community-based nonprofit Women With A Vision (WWAV). On May 24, 2012, the offices of WWAV were firebombed and destroyed. The arson attack was a form of spiritual warfare. As the arsonists moved through the space, they shattered the awards the organization was given for their revolutionary Black feminist work; they burned the faces off Black women in their photographs and posters; they set little fires throughout their meditation alcove; and then they built a bonfire in their outreach office, destroying all of the records and testimonies we gathered from our community.

After the arson attack, they started collecting every life-giving ember from our history that we could find: first, the handfuls of photographs, posters, and documents that had not gone up in flames, and then, our presence with one another and with our communities, which we began to record through life history interviews, collective storytelling sessions, and more. Together, they cared for these embers, tended to them, stitched them together into what became their Born in Flames Living Archive, and set them free in their book, Fire Dreams: Making Black Feminist Liberation in the South. (Language adapted from McTighe, 2024).

As a part of a WWAV creative storytelling team, I work alongside scholar/activist Laura McTighe, WWAV Executive Director/activist Deon Haywood, storyteller Camille Roane, and the broader WWAV community to identify core stories from the book and translate them into image-rich zines for education and outreach with our communities.

Groovin’ Griot is a podcast exploring how we use dance to tell stories throughout the African Diaspora. It is produced and edited by my co-host, OreOluwa Badaki (Ore), and I with the support of the Teachers College Digital Futures Institute (DFI). The term “griot” comes from the West African tradition of oral and embodied storytelling. Griots are traveling poets, musicians, genealogists, and historians who preserve and tell stories via a variety of modalities. On Groovin’ Griot, we center the West African Diaspora, honoring the legacy of the griot by talking to the storytellers in our communities who help us understand the role of dance in remembering and reimagining the lessons embedded in these stories.

(Re)Search for Solutions is a limited series podcast focusing specifically on unexpected and creative ways that researchers are looking at solutions to the persistence of gun violence. I co-produced this series alongside the Media and Social Change Lab (MASCLab) at Teachers College, Columbia University. To develop these stories, we collaborated with the experts (professors, community members, doctors, activists, teachers, and more) to understand the stories surrounding their work.

Listen to Research for Solutions here, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.

Ships: Spiriting Our Survival is a conceptual documentary short film I created alongside Cienna Davis and Jacobie Smith. Through interviews with the professors and birth workers from the city of Philadelphia, we situate the course within the long history of slavery and the present-day Black maternal health crisis. This documentary experimentally constructs a conceptual parallel between ships and the Black maternal womb as both vessels of captivity and freedom.

Cops Are(n't) Colorblind: Changing the NYPD from the Inside and Out is a documentary film created by Demitrius Doward, Nyla Cepeda, Laye Diakite, Geordy Eduardo Mejia, Niaja L. Nazario, Diana Pagan, Jhonatan St. Phard, Taliya Hughes, Mikey Rosa, Moesha Martinez and Shaniya Fletcher as students at the Educational Video Center in New York City. The documentary film shows two main characters, Demitrius and Niaja, who experienced racial profiling as young teenagers. It explores whether the recruitment of cops of color can change a culture of racial profiling. Does racism inside the NYPD affect how cops of color treat African-Americans? What obstacles do African-Americans face when becoming cops? Furthermore, what does it mean to create change from inside vs. outside a system?

As a master’s student at Teachers College, Columbia University, I supported these students in their production of this film, assisting with research, shooting, outreach, and other production needs.