User:Adjoajo/MBaker

Mya Baker is an American filmmaker, poet, writer, director and researcher. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and has lived and taught early childhood education in Brooklyn, New York. She studied film at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. While at Columbia College she developed her skills in writing and film production. She founded Shoot Films Not People a production company. Many of her films have been shown at film festivals. She has also worked as a Special Education preschool teacher in Brooklyn, New York. She stated in an article with the Patch.com that she creates films to begin the healing process for black men, women, and for society. Two of her films have focused on undoing stereotypes of Black men and Women; Afraid of Dark, and Silence: In search of Black Female Sexuality in America.

Early life
Mya was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up around positive black male and female role models. She did experience racism while growing up in Chicago. When she was five years old she says in an interview that "I remember so clearly, when I was 5 years old, my mother, my brother and I were chased out of a Chicago neighborhood called Bridgeport when we were young. A gang of boys were waiting for us as we walked out of this church, and they started chasing us with bats and bricks yelling, 'Nigger go home!'

Career
Films & Documentaries Made & Directed by Mya Baker
 * 1994 - Warrior Queens - Mya's first documentary short which was shown at the Dusable Museum of African American History in Chicago.


 * 2004 - Silence: In search of Black Female Sexuality in America; - With interviews with Nzingha Stewart, Dr. Hilda Hutcherson, Dr. Lliala Afrika, Little X, Professor Trisha Rose, Punany Poets, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In this film Mya B explores the past and present sexual myths about Black women. Segments of the film were shown on  film, was also VH1’s, “Can’t Get a Date”, in 2006.


 * 2010 - Maya Illusion is a short film starring Angelo Boyke and Sophia Loren Coffee; Directed by Mya Baker and Co-Directed by Amy Werber. This film short is a about a young woman who falls in love with a pretty face to find out later that the pretty face has HIV.
 * 2014 Afraid of Dark. This film confronts negative stereotypes of Black males with interviews with rappers, actors, and politicians that talk about their experiences with racism and injustices. In the film are interviews with Lou Myers, Malik Yoba, Sadat X, Sam Greenlee, Tom Burrell, Vondie Curtis Hall, Dr. Cornell West, Dr. Khalil G. Muhammad, General Steele, Kenya K. Stevens, and Kevin Powell

Honors

 * 2004 - Telly Award for her documentary Silence: In Search of Black Female Sexuality in America
 * 2006 - BET finalist in the Rap It-Up Competition