Ayoka Chenzira facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ayoka "Ayo" Chenzira
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| Born | November 8, 1953 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Filmmaker and Television Director |
| Years active | 1979 - |
| Known for | One of a handful of Black experimental filmmakers working in the late 1970s, One of the first African American women filmmakers to write, produce, and direct a feature film |
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Notable work
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"Hairpiece: A Film for Nappyheaded People", "Zajota & the Boogie Spirit", "Alma's Rainbow", "MOTV", "HERadventure" |
Ayoka "Ayo" Chenzira (born November 8, 1953) is an amazing American filmmaker. She is a producer, director, animator, and writer. She also tells stories using new digital ways. She was the first African American woman to create animated films. She is also one of the few Black experimental filmmakers working since the late 1970s.
Ayo Chenzira is known around the world for her creative films. These include documentaries, animated movies, and unique experimental projects. She also helped teach film to many students. Because of her work, some people call her a media activist. She uses her films to promote social justice and challenge stereotypes about African Americans in the media.
Some of her most famous works include the film Alma’s Rainbow (1993). She also made the drama MOTV and animated films like Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People (1984). Another well-known animated film is Zajota & the Boogie Spirit (1989). More recently, she has explored "transmedia storytelling." This means combining physical objects with digital art. She also creates interactive films, like HERadventure (2013), which she made with her daughter HaJ.
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Early Life and Art
Ayoka Chenzira was born in Philadelphia. She grew up in North Philadelphia with her mother. Her mother owned a beauty salon in their building. From a young age, Ayoka was surrounded by art. She played the piano and cello. She also studied ballet and played field hockey.
Her mother encouraged her artistic dreams. She even made unique clothes for Ayoka. Ayoka started working with moving images when she was just 17 years old.
Education and Teaching
After high school, Chenzira studied film and photography. She went to The College of New Rochelle in Westchester, New York. She later earned her master's degree in education from Columbia University.
She also got her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film production from New York University. Her final project there was Syvilla: They Dance To Her Drum (1979). This short film was about Syvilla Fort, an African American dancer. Syvilla Fort was Ayoka's dance teacher. Ayoka Chenzira is also the first African American to earn a PhD in Digital Media Arts. She received this degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Today, Chenzira is the Division Chair of the Arts at Spelman College. She was also one of the first African Americans to teach film production in colleges.
Filmmaking Career
Ayoka Chenzira was part of a group of young Black filmmakers. They made movies without relying on big Hollywood studios. From 1981 to 1984, she worked at the Black Filmmakers Foundation. There, she helped share and promote films made by Black artists.
In 1984, she was chosen as one of seven writer/directors for the Sundance Institute. She was also one of the first African American women to produce a full-length movie. This film was Alma's Rainbow (1993).
Red Carnelian Productions
In the mid-1980s, Chenzira started her own company called Red Carnelian. This company was based in New York. It focused on making and sharing media that showed the lives and culture of African Americans. The company had a successful production part and a distribution part called Black Indie Classics.
Leadership and Advocacy
Chenzira was also the Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Arts at the City College of New York. She managed programs in areas like advertising, journalism, and film. She also helped create their first master's degree program in media arts production.
She worked as an arts administrator and helped get support for independent films. She was a founding board member of Production Partners in New York. This group helped make films by African American and Hispanic and Latino American artists more visible. She also helped Charles Lane with his award-winning film Sidewalk Stories (1989).
Chenzira also served on panels for several arts foundations. Her work helped create the first Multicultural Public Television Fund. In the mid-1990s, she advised M-Net Television in South Africa. She also taught screenwriting and directing in countries like Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal.
Spelman College and Collections
In 2001, Chenzira became the first William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Arts at Spelman College in Atlanta. There, she created the Digital Moving Image Salon (DMIS). This program helped students research and produce documentaries. She also started a project called Oral Narratives and Digital Technology. This was a partnership between Spelman College and the Durham Institute of Technology. She taught documentary filmmaking to Zulu students there.
By 2015, many of Chenzira's films were added to famous permanent collections. These include the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her early films were also shown at Lincoln Center. This was part of a celebration of Black filmmakers.
Notable Films
Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People
Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People is a short film from 1984. It uses animation and different types of media. The film humorously explores the special connection Black women have with their hair. Chenzira said she was inspired by the question, "Why is kinky hair seen as broken?"
The film talks about how Black women see themselves in a society where "beautiful hair" often means straight hair. This animated short film explores personal space and rights for Black women and their bodies. It compares the hair experiences of Black women to white beauty standards. Chenzira shows the hair salon as an important place. The film uses humor, music, and magazine photos. It looks at African American beauty trends from the early 1900s to the 1980s. In 2018, Hair Piece was chosen for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. This means it is considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Alma's Rainbow
Chenzira produced and directed Alma's Rainbow in 1993. This is a comedy-drama about a young woman growing up. It focuses on middle-class Black women in Brooklyn. This was one of the first feature films made by an African American woman. It was even one of Billboard Magazine’s top 40 home video rentals.
The film follows Alma Gold, her daughter Rainbow, and Rainbow’s aunt Ruby. They work to find happiness, love, and financial success in their lives. The movie explores the challenges they face on this journey. It also looks at how roles based on race, social class, and gender affect them. Chenzira shows how unfair systems can hurt women's self-image.
Dance and Digital Stories
Two of her films, Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum (1979) and Zajota & the Boogie Spirit (1989), explore the role of dance in Black history. Syvilla is a documentary about Syvilla Fort. She was a dancer and choreographer who connected the Katherine Dunham and Alvin Ailey dance periods.
Zajota & the Boogie Spirit is an animated film. It tells the story of Africans brought to America and the Caribbean. Chenzira said she made this film because she felt Black Americans sometimes felt uncomfortable dancing well.
Starting with Zajota & the Boogie Spirit, Chenzira began to focus more on digital and transmedia storytelling. In the 2000s, she released the first part of HERadventure. This is an "interactive sci-fi fantasy film." It was created by Chenzira and her daughter HaJ. The National Endowment for the Arts helped fund it. This film is also an interactive game. It has been available online worldwide since 2014.
Chenzira's move to "transmedia storytelling" was inspired by how people now do many things at once. She explained that parts of a story can be on a website, a smartphone, or social media. She noted that people often use their phone while talking to someone else and looking at another screen. This is a new way of experiencing stories. In 2018, Chenzira also started directing TV shows.
Filmography
- Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum (Short) (1979)
- Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy Headed People (Short) (1984)
- Secret Sounds Screaming (Short) (1985)
- Five Out of Five (Music Video) (1986)
- On Becoming a Woman (Animation) (1986)
- The Lure and the Lore (short) (1989)
- Zajota and the Boogie Spirit (Short) (1990)
- Pull Your Head to the Moon (TV Short) (1992)
- Alma's Rainbow (1993)
- Snowfire (Short) (1994)
- Sentry at the Gate: The Comedy of Jane Galvin-Lewis (1995)
- In the Rivers of Mercy Angst (Short) (1997)
- HERadventure (2014)
- MOTV (My Own TV)
Television Credits
In 2018, Ava DuVernay asked Chenzira to direct an episode of Queen Sugar. For this episode, Chenzira was nominated for an NAACP Award for Best Director. Since then, she has directed the season 4 finale of Queen Sugar. She has also directed episodes of Greenleaf, Trinkets, Delilah, Dynasty, A League of Their Own, Octavia Butler's Kindred, and Beacon 23.
Awards and Honors
In 2020, Black Women Animate and the Cartoon Network gave Ayoka Chenzira the Cultural Innovator Award. In 2019, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began to restore and preserve her films.
Many of Chenzira's films are now in permanent collections. These include the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Some of her films have even been translated into French and Japanese. Her 1984 short film Hair Piece was added to the National Film Registry in 2018.
In 2018, Chenzira was nominated for an NAACP Award for her directing work on Queen Sugar. She also won the 1991 Sony Innovator Award. The mayors of New York City and Detroit have honored her for her contributions to Black cinema.
More Recognitions
- Brooklyn Cultural Crossroads Achievement Award, 1981
- Paul Robeson Award, 1984
- First Place/Cultural Affairs of National Black Programming Consortium, 1984
- Mayor's Award for Contributions to the Field —Detroit, 1987
- First Place for Animation (Zajota, The Boogie Spirit), Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, 1990
- Best Producer, National Black Programming Consortium, 1990
- Silver Apple, National Educational Film and Video Festival, 1990
- First Place, Sony Innovator Award in Media, 1991
- First Place, John Hanks Award, 1991
- First Place, Dance Screen, 1992
- Best Overall, Best Drama, Community Choice Award, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame 1993
- Apple Computer Distinguished Educator Award (2003)
