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   I am a multimedia artist, researcher, and educator of Afrofuturism and Black Islam in the U.S. based in Baltimore, MD.

Read more about me here.

Recent:
Islam & Prints What Happens When We Nurture exhibition named “Best of” in the Baltimore Beat’s end-of-year publication.

Baltimore Beat’s review of Islam & Print’s What Happens When We Nurture exhibition.

UMBC Magazine’s alumni profile, “The Mundane Afrofuturism of multimedia artist Safiyah Cheatam”

  1. Assistant Manager of Teen Programs at the Walters Art Museum
  2. Co-founder of Islam & Print
  3. Trustee at the Awesome Foundation


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RESEARCH


KUFIS & PEPPERONI PIZZA


A Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) Wherewithal Research Grant video essay investigating the sudden and short-lived mass conversion to Islam amongst Black youth in the DC-metro area between 2008-2012, with research partner Hope Willis.

Watch here... 
SEPTEMBER 2022

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SPECULATIVE HISTORIES & FUTURES


Four international artists and scholars, Dr. Tiffany E. Barber, Ayodamola Tanimowo Okunseinde (ayo), Kite, and Jonas Staal, will discuss this panel’s titular terms in relation to their own work, expanding the terms however they desire, with moderator Safiyah Cheatam.

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MARCH 2022

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YARROW MAMOUT: WEAVER OF ISLAM, COUNTER-MEMORY, AND AFROFUTURISM IN LATE 18TH CENTURY GEORGETOWN, DC


A Smithsonian's Claiming Space Symposium video essay uplifting a local legacy of Black Muslim resilience, self-determination, and success within the realm of Afrofuturism.

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JANUARY 2022

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FROM COUNTER-MEMORY TO COUNTER-CULTURE: BLACK ISLAM IN THE U.S. THROUGH A MUNDANE AFROFUTURIST LENS


This graduate thesis is a multi-generational look at moments of Mundane Afrofuturism (as theorized by Martine Syms) within the lives of Black Muslims in the U.S., emphasizing the concepts of counter-memory and counter-culture as key cultural and political approaches toward subversion and innovation.

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MAY 2021

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MAKING A CASE FOR W.E.B. DU BOIS AS A PROTO-AFROFUTURIST


This essay situates political activist, sociologist, and artist (amongst many additional attributes) William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 - 1963) within the foundational framework of Afrofuturism.

“Du Bois encompasses both the mundane and the fantastical aspects of Afrofuturism in the praxis of his life’s work.”


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JUL 2020

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GOLDEN RECORD: TAKE TWO


A short review of Philadelphia-based artist Suldano Abdiruhman's multimedia artwork Voyager 3 (Signs and Symbols Aliens Should Know and Understand) (2017) which includes an ink on canvas painting, an accompanying booklet and iPod.

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APRIL 2019

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ON PERCEPTION: REALITY AND APPROACHING RENEWAL


This essay combines the thoughts of John Berger's Ways of Seeing, Jean Baudrillard's The Precession of the Simulacra, and Rebecca Solnit's The Annihilation of Time and Space to examine how humans have evolved to perceive space-time in regard to the industrial revolution(s); semiotics and iconology; and simulation-based media.

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OCTOBER 2018


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A BLACK SPACE


This essay surveys Towson University’s Center for the Arts Spring 2017 Dark Humor exhibition featuring artists Joyce J. Scott and Peter Williams in addition to situating Radcliffe Bailey’s 2008-2011 installation Windward Coast within the fold of Afrofuturism by way of guest lecturer Nikki A. Greene.

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MARCH 2017

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