Woki Massaquoi
Woki Massaquoi is an interdisciplinary artist working across photography, painting, and performance. Rooted in her Sierra Leonean heritage, her social practice explores memory, identity, and collective care through conceptual and documentary image-making. She examines how Black histories and ancestral knowledge are preserved, embodied, and reimagined across the African diaspora.
A self-taught photographer since 2008, Massaquoi's practice has been shaped by an apprenticeship with fashion editor Mobolaji Dawodu, performance training under Melvin Williams, and international touring as a dancer with Grammy-nominated Malian vocalist Awa Sangho. She is a recipient of the Black Utopian Fellowship, and her paintings have been exhibited at Flux Factory in Queens, NY.
Since returning her focus to photography in 2015, Massaquoi has documented stories that connect Black communities across borders, including the inaugural Sierra Leone Diaspora Investment Conference. Through her work, she creates images that honor ancestral memory, celebrate Black life, and imagine futures grounded in dignity, resilience, and cultural continuity.