Malika Pryor is a powerhouse with a purpose—and a job as dynamic as she is. The Detroit native is the Chief Learning & Engagement Officer at the International African American Museum (IAAM). Opened in June of 2023, the International African American Museum is a national treasure. Pryor gets to direct the talented teams who curate the exhibits and the museum’s events. Located in Charleston, South Carolina, this 38,000-square-foot space is fittingly nestled in the heart of Gadsden’s Wharf. More than 80% of all African Americans can trace at least one ancestor back to this area since Gadsden’s was such a major port during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Everything from the Canary Island palm trees outside of the museum to the hands-on learning installations inside the space were intentionally chosen.
Pryor’s path to IAAM has not been a linear one. After practicing entertainment law in Atlanta for several years, Pryor returned to Detroit in 2010, where she served as director of education and programs 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 organizations and social entrepreneurs with a special emphasis on Black, Indigenous and people of color 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 there, she founded Curlyfest Bahamas, a festival celebrating natural curly and textured hair. After returning and working again in her hometown, Pryor was asked to fill her current role, which brought her to Charleston and IAAM.
Under Pryor’s direction, the museum impressively covers Black history, present and even future in not only the United States but throughout the African Diaspora. Visitors learn an abundance about “us” – from the profound strides Black Americans made in politics during the Reconstruction to some of the rarely discussed ways that enslaved Africans and their descendants continue to preserve traditions from the continent. The special events and programming hosted by IAAM are a welcoming addition to the Charleston social scene; ensuring there is something for all visitors. Earlier this month, Pryor and her team welcomed the legendary Fisk Jubilee Singers of the storied Tennessee HBCU, Fisk University, while previous guests have included renowned actress Phylicia Rashad and media personality Charlamagne tha God.
ESSENCE caught up with the busy mother of five about growing up in the Motor City, her diverse career background, and the not-so-predictable songs she rocks out to in order to make all the magic happen.
ESSENCE: What was little Malika like growing up in Detroit?
MALIKA PRYOR: I come from a family of people who don’t believe in “baby talk.” I was taught to consider my thoughts valid. I was expected and even required to think about things. I was raised by thinking people who required me to be a thinking person. I knew early that being Black was a beautiful thing. When I was 4 years old, I read Ego Trippingby Nikki Giovanni for the first time because it was in my library. It is probably still my favorite poem.
ESSENCE: Your upbringing seems to have informed your career choices. You’re also an entertainment lawyer, and you have lived and worked in the Bahamas. How did all of this lead you to IAAM?
PRYOR: My values have inspired my career journey. It’s important to me to make an impact. IAAM is my fourth museum. I was recruited for this position. As much as I appreciated being able to represent artists in contract negotiations [as an attorney], there was a very specific and limited way that it offered benefit. I’m not really getting a chance to engage and build community. So, being in an institution where I get to utilize the skillset that drove me and offered me some modicum of success certainly lent itself to my current role. Opening a museum is essentially like running a startup because there’s infrastructure that you must build.
ESSENCE: While our audience can imagine that no two days are the same for you, give us an idea of what a “typical” day at work is like for Malika.
PRYOR: Within my role, I lead six departments. Community relations runs from my office. And then those additional departments within my division include volunteer management, our faith-based education and engagement team, our Center for Family History, which is our family genealogy center, exhibitions, collections, and curation, which runs out of the single department of public history. We’re also focusing on K-12 learners, as well as specialized programs for students. So, you’re absolutely right. No day is the same. However, as an executive, a lot of what I do is administrative. My team leads are the ones who do the sexy work. I inform it, I guide it. Sometimes I instruct it. But I really live and operate in a more strategic space where I’m providing the expanse as well as limitations for the scope of work and power of my directors. Thinking about my director of curatorial, for instance, the conversations that we’re typically having are about the calendar. They’re about the kinds of exhibitions that we’re looking to bring to the museum, the kinds of exhibitions that we’re contemplating creating within the museum, which ones travel, which ones don’t, what sort of stories are weseeing as we’re continuing to learn from our visitors.
ESSENCE: What is the most rewarding part of your job and what are you most proud of thus far?
PRYOR: There are moments that are what I refer to as my personal golden nuggets. They are reminders of my why, because as an executive, you don’t see the visitors every day. You don’t necessarily get the benefit of looking at bright eye babies discovering something new in your museum because there are back-to-back meetings. One example is when we facilitated this fantastic program honoring James Baldwin on the 100th anniversary of his birth, albeit posthumously. Our mission is to honor the untold stories of the African American experience. A gentleman at the end of the program stood up because there was a good bit of discourse around the power of the usefulness of productive rage. This is a highly articulate, clearly successful in whatever professional endeavor, man. He says, “You freed me tonight. I always thought that my anger, that my rage was a negative thing, and I’ve been taught to hold it in or to try and keep it down. You freed me.”
ESSENCE: Wow. Speaking of the African American experience, how important is it to ensure that Gullah Geechee culture is given their flowers at IAAM given that the museum is located in the low country?
PRYOR: It is criminal how under told the Gullah Geechee culture is. What they represent is something that is, quite frankly, global. Skill. Brilliance. Memory. Conscious collective memory. Specifically tied to land and sea. Language, food ways, cultural ways, religious and spiritual practices. We need to elevate the history of Gullah Geechee people such as there is recognition.
When we think about the things that make Charleston so interesting and unique, they’re primarily rooted in not just African American cultural expression, but specifically oriented from the Gullah. And there’s a role for African Americans more broadly to play in supporting them and being intentional when they come to Charleston.
ESSENCE: Let’s end with some fun rapid-fire questions!
PRYOR: (laughs) Okay.
ESSENCE: You’re a mother to five (!) children. What is your go-to mom hack?
PRYOR: I’m always asking myself the next question. I’m also asking myself if I’m doing things in an order that makes life easier. Even if I’ve got to pre-treat the laundry and that takes a little bit more time, having the clothes in the washer first just makes more sense. I can be in the kitchen preparing dinner while the clothes are washing. This makes life easier, so all things I need to complete get done.
ESSENCE: Heels or sneakers?
PRYOR: Heels! But I do love my Converse All-Stars.
ESSENCE: Favorite show to binge watch?
PRYOR: Ted Lasso. Abbott Elementary is a close second.
ESSENCE: Favorite low-country meal?
PRYOR: Red rice, which is the granddaughter of West African jollof rice.
ESSENCE.com: What are the three most played songs on your playlist?
PRYOR: Loved by Leslie Odom, Jr. / Let Her Cook by GloRilla / ZTFO by Big Sean (Shout out to the 313!). And my fourth would be just about anything by Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – a talented trumpet player out of New Orleans.Visit iaamuseum.org to learn more about upcoming exhibitions and events at the International African American Museum.