mekdela maskal was born by Ethiopian and Eritrean parents who met while seeking asylum in Los Angeles, California. She is an community engagement leader, journalist, prescribed firelighter, mediator, artist, and land tender.
They currently work as the Engagement Director of a journalism collaboration called Covering Climate Now, a model with HÉLÈNE, and a mediator, by referral.
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. She 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 building with Sasha Rabin, pigments and paint making with Wild Pigment Project, and completed a Masters in Engaged Journalism at The City University of New York.
All of her work is oriented toward repairing relationships-through land, art, media and technology.
