Ayoka Chenzira

Ayoka “Ayo” Chenzira (born November 8, 1953) is an independent African-American producer, film and television director, animator, writer, experimental filmmaker, and transmedia storyteller. She is the first African American woman animator and one of a handful of Black experimental filmmakers working since the late 1970s. Chenzira studied film and photography at The College of New Rochelle and accomplished her M.A. degree in education at Columbia University. She received her B.F.A. degree in film production from New York University. In 1984, Chenzira was one of seven writer/directors selected for the Sundance Institute. She was one of the first African-American women to produce a feature-length film, Alma’s Rainbow (1993). She has earned international acclaim for her work.

Her work, as well as her efforts as one of the first African American woman film educators, have led some in the press to describe her as a media activist for social justice and challenging representations of African American stereotypes in the mainstream media. She has formed or otherwise been involved with several companies and nonprofits dedicated to Black films, including the Black Filmmakers Foundation, Red Carnelian, and Production Partners. Along with 14 other panelists, Chenzira’s contributions for the Minority Task Force on Public Television resulted in the first Multicultural Public Television Fund. She has also served as a media panelist for the Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Chenzira served as the Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Arts at the City College of New York, where she managed programs in advertising, public relations, journalism, film and video; she also co-created their first M.F.A in media arts production graduate program. In the mid 1990s, Chenzira was consultant to the M-Net Television of South Africa and taught screenwriting and directing in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa. In 2001, Chenzira was invited to serve as the first William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Arts at Spelman College, where she created and directed the award-winning Digital Moving Image Salon (DMIS), a year-long research and documentary production course. Chenzira also created and served as director of Oral Narratives and Digital Technology, a joint venture between Spelman College and the Durham Institute of Technology (DIT) where she designed and taught documentary filmmaking primarily for Zulu students at DIT.

She has received numerous accolades, including the 2020 Cultural Innovator Award from Black Women Animate and Cartoon Network, the inclusion of her 2018 work Hair Piece in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, two awards from the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and a NAACP Award nomination. In 2019, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences began to restore and preserve Chenzira’s films. She has been honored for her contributions to Black cinema by the then-mayors of New York City and Detroit.

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