Malika N. Pryor, JD, is the chief learning and engagement officer for the International African American Museum. She works with the CEO to guide the development of programs exploring the Middle Passage, the African diaspora, and African Americans' vital contributions to history and the modern world.
Pryor leads the learning and engagement division and develops partnerships and initiatives that advance and uphold the museum’s mission, including exhibitions, school programmes, faith-based initiatives, local and national public programmes, and the Center for Family History, a unique research centre dedicated to African American genealogy.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Pryor was influenced by her family’s legacy in education and the arts. She also benefited from the city’s diverse community and cultural arts institutions, and both her academic and professional journey mirror this rich early experience.
She earned a BA in Organizational Studies and Afro-American and African Studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, then a JD from Wayne State. After practising entertainment law in Atlanta, Pryor returned home in 2010 to serve as director of education and programmes at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
From there, she launched a boutique non-profit consulting firm providing services to emerging community-based organisations and social entrepreneurs with a special emphasis on Black, Indigenous, and global majority founders.
She then joined the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, where she led communications, development, and education, directing the museum’s national touring exhibition.
While living abroad, she founded Curlyfest Bahamas, a festival celebrating natural hair, before returning to Detroit, where she most recently served as the senior director of education programmes and outreach for the Detroit Historical Society.
There, she developed innovative and notable interpretive experiences, including Invoking the Spirit: Detroit’s Black Bottom, a digital exhibition and walking tour chronicling the lives and experiences of one of the city's most historically significant neighbourhoods.
Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.
