Maya X
Maya X is a griot artivist (artist + activist) who uses lyricism, music, and dialogue to ignite change. She hopes to use storytelling as a means of activism to explore themes of racial injustices within the European classical music tradition, thus expanding its access to people of all backgrounds.
The name Maya X pays homage to leaders of the Civil Rights Movement as well as recognizes the history and ancestry of the African diaspora. The X represents the African name and heritage that has been stripped away from her family. Maya X enjoys leading and sparking discussions that question cultural and racial structures that encourage division and uses music as a healing tool to resolve such practices.
Photography by Michael Tan
Who I Am/Who’s AYAM
Maya is a transdisciplinary artist-scholar from the D.C. Metropolitan Maryland area. When she isn’t in school, she splits her time between freelancing and developing her artist project AYAM.
AYAM is the artist project of Maya and it contains all of her musical identities: Maya Giles, Maya Simone, Maya X, and Maestra Chameleon. Long pulled between her love of Euro-classical music and contemporary music, Maya hopes that her musical expression will create a meet in the middle space for the two worlds to coexist and cross pollinate both respective listening audiences.