Malkia Cyril

Malkia Cyril grew up believing that “everyone deserves a public voice.” Inspired by her mother’s work editing the Black Panther’s newspaper in Brooklyn, New York, Cyril recognized the power of media in forming and disseminating public opinion. Ever since, she has dedicated her life to providing all communities with the tools to harness the power of the media to ensure their voices are heard. Malkia Cyril is the founder and Executive director of the Center for Media Justice (CMJ), a media policy and strategy hub based in Oakland, California, which works to amplify the voice of grassroots social justice organizations across the United States. Since the CMJ’s founding in 2002, the organization has been involved with helping numerous organizations develop communications strategies to support social justice. Although Malkia spends “an inordinate amount of time writing fiction and poetry,” she has also found the time to publish her work advocating for media justice in the New York Times, Politico, the Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, the Village Voice, the Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lives and works in Oakland, CA