mekdela maskal was born by Ethiopian and Eritrean parents who met while seeking asylum in Los Angeles, California. She is a journalist, firelighter, mediator, artist, land tender, and psilocybin assisted therapeutic guide in learning.
They work as the Engagement Director of a journalism collaboration called Covering Climate Now, a Program Director with Herban Cura, and a model with HÉLÈNE.
While living in New York City, she helped launch THE CITY’s Open Newsroom project, an initiative that brought communities and journalists together in public libraries to build trust and make reporting a more collaborative process.
In 2020, mekdela and collaborator, Sawdayah Brownlee, were selected to join The Strange Foundation's biannual Decelerator Residency Program right before the COVID pandemic hit. After a decade in NYC, she decided to return home to Grass Valley, California and was met with one of the worst wildfire seasons. They leapt into a journey repairing her relationship with fire and trained as a wildland firefighter.
Inspired by the land, mekdela keeps a process-oriented art practice where she works with foraged clay, plants and minerals to make quotidian objects, sculptures and installations. She has collaborated with Bear Yuba Land Trust and California Heritage Indigenous Research Project on site and time specific pieces in Nisenan Territory.
mekdela graduated from New York University with an M.S. in Media, Culture and Communications in 2013. From there, she studied funghi with Herban Cura, decolonizing food systems with Soul Fire Farm, natural pigments with Wild Pigment Project, and completed a Masters in Engaged Journalism at The City University of New York.
She is currently studying Loving Conflict with Coming Home Healing and psilocybin-assisted group therapy with Gatherwell. mekdela facilitates workshops on repairing relationships through land, food, art and media. Follow along with love in the cracks.
