Cheyanne Zadia
is an interdisciplinary creator, musician and director from West Baltimore, Maryland. Her works include visual and performance art, poetry, composing, filmmaking, conceptual design, and curatorial practice. The basis of her work speaks to perspective, memorials of black culture, social relativity, spirituality, and the merging of sub-cultures.
Her middle name, Zadia, doubles as her stage moniker. Her performances range from large festivals, museums, and sidewalks to singing the National Anthem at the Baltimore Orioles Opening Game. Following the release of her debut album ‘Vacants’ her work has received widespread support as she has been featured in various publications including BmoreArt, CityPaper, The Afro, True Laurels, The New York Times, Baltimore Banner and ID Magazine. Zadia was named Best New Artist by Baltimore Magazine (2020) and was awarded Johns Hopkins University’s Saul Zaentz Fellowship in 2022.
She is also the director of The Alpha Female Festival, Baltimore’s first all female ran festival which serves as a celebration of women artists, creators, and professionals; as well as co-founder of Black Women Hike 5k.
Influenced by contradicting forces of growing up in the church while being raised adjacent to street life in West Baltimore her art presents unique perspectives of identity, duality, death, and commonalities of the human experience.
Church introduced her to cultural performance where she learned to sing, dance, act, playwright, and most importantly be of service. Growing up in West Baltimore introduced her to a world where she had no choice but to develop an intuitive spirit of innovation. It was through these instincts that she developed her will to create.
Her creative career started with photography and design. In 2008 she founded the clothing brand Wvrdrobe which led her to produce fashion focused experiences all across Baltimore. Over time Wvrdrobe developed a reputation for it’s one-of-a-kind events. Eventually the practice of design morphed into producing experiences full time where she would connect emerging and established creators developing organic communities through collaborative exhibits. These experiences catered to underserved artists with little to no higher education in art but recognizably innate talent. This practice as a connector allowed Cheyanne to explore the depths of her internal diversity as a common ground to attract and merge uncommon minds into one space. Her events still serve as the archival foundation for many artist relationships, duos, and collaborations we know and love today.
Cheyanne Zadia is committed to using her voice, her work, and curatorial artisty as a means to cultivate culture shifting experiences and reconcile grief with creation.
CV
Cheyanne Zadia
American, b. 1991, Baltimore, MD
Lives and works in Baltimore, MD
Selected Works
Performances
Elizabeth Talbot Scott Tribute Performance, Baltimore Museum of Art, 2023
Baltimore x Baltimore Festival, Headlining Performance, 2022
Visit Baltimore, Your People are Here, Commercial, HULU, 2021
National Anthem, Baltimore Orioles Opening Game 2021
50th Annual Mt Vernon Monument Lighting, 2021
Afram, Baltimore’s African American Festival, Virtual Performance, 2021
CllctivSound Residency with Konjur Collective, Sunspots 2021
Sidewalk Serenade, East and West Baltimore Tour, Creative Alliance, 2020
Beautiful Side of Ugly, Culture Festival, 2020
Devin Allen’s Spaces of the Un-Entitled, The Peale Museum, 2019
A Lor Bit of Soul, Motor House, 2018
Commissions | Collaborations
We Own This Celebration, Baltimore Creative Acceleration Network, MICA, Creative Producer and Curator 2023
Nike AF1 40th Anniversary Commercial (DTLR), NIKE, Talent and Production, 2023
Nia June’s The Unveiling of God, Soundtrack, Featured Composer 2021
Visit Baltimore, Your People are Here, Sound Production 2021
ID Magazine 40th Anniversary Cover, Featured Artist 2020
Under Armour, Devin Allen Collection, Model 2021
AIN'T I A WOMAN by Shan Wallace, Closing Event: Alpha Female Soiree, 2017
Events | Exhibits | Curatorial Works
Taste & Turntables, Sound and Culinary Art Experience, Good Neighbor Design Week, 2022
Black Women Hike (5k), Patapsco State Park, 2020
Alpha Female Festival, Medusa, August 2019
Alpha Female Festival, Hotel Revival, March 2019
Alpha Female Soiree, 2019
Alpha Female Festival, Gallery 788, 2016
Woman; Film Screening and Panel Discussion, Curator, Creative Alliance, 2021
John Sington Tribute Screening, Impact Hub, 2019
James Baldwin, I am not your Negro Screening, Charles Theature, 2017
Brainwash, Interactive Pop-up Exhibit, 2018
Delicate, A Celebratory Exhibit of Black Men in Baltimore, Eubie Blake Center, 2018
The Art of Collaboration Exhibit, Pipe Dreamz Gallery, 2017
1914 Affair, Artist Talk Series, 2020
1914 Affair, Historical Preservation, Arch Social Club, 2017
1914 Affair, Unruly Royal, with Tiffany Goche, Area 405, 2016
1914 Affair, Warehouse, with Kondwani Fide +Josh Austin, Private Warehouse 2015
1914 Affair, with Ron Bass, Real News Network, 2014
1914 Affair, with Dee and Ricky, United Workers Building, 2013
Devin Allen’s Awaken of a New Light Exhibit, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Performance Curator, 2015
HASS (Hear Art, See Sound) Exhibit, with Nina Sky, Subbasement Artist Studios, 2014
Baltimore Spring Jam, Baltimore SoundStage, 2014
Lyrical Warfare, Headliner A$AP ANT, United Workers Building, 2014
Lyrical Warfare, Headliner Chyna Rogers, 208 Pulaski Warehouse, 2013
Film Production | Directorial Works
Vacants Episodic Series (InProgress)
In the Blue, Director and Co-Producer, 2023
Costa Negra, Al Roger Jr’s Music Video, Cinematographer, Costa Rica, 2023
Message from the Womb, Producer and Co-Director, St. Ann, Jamaica, 2022
Woman; A Reflection of Black Women And Our Mother, Producer, Baltimore 2021
Delicate Baltimore, Documentary, Producer, Director ( 2018, In Progress)
Speaking Engagements | Panels and Lectures
We Can Do It! Artist Talk, Motor House 2020
Artist Talk with Devin Allen, Motor House, 2019
Head Rush, Workshop, Maryland Art Place, 2016
Curators of HipHop Panel, Enoch Pratt Library, 2016
Discography
Vacants, Debut Album, 2020
Flicks, Glimlip ft Mike C, Zadia, 2018
Choozyluva, Al Rogers Jr. ft Zadia, 2017
Awards|Fellowships
Ruby’s Artist Award + Fellowship, 2023
Saul Zaentz Award, Johns Hopkins University 2022
Baltimore Best New Artist, Baltimore Magazine 2020
BYFA Student Fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 2018
Breakout Changemaker Award 2018
Press
Cheyanne Zadia’s Alpha Female Show Let’s Women Artists Shine, BmoreArt Magazine, 2019
Going Inward: Cheyanne Zadia on Home, Style, and Her New Album Vacants, 2020
‘You can't raid the sun’, Up+Rising Cover ID Magazine 2020
Zadia’s HomeGrown Melodies, True Laurels, 2022