Tsedaye Makonnen is a multidisciplinary artist whose studio, curatorial, and research-based practice threads together her identity as a daughter of Ethiopian immigrants, a Black American woman, doula, and a mother. Makonnen invests in the transhistorical forced migration of Black communities across the globe and Feminism. Her work is both an intimate memorialization and a protective sanctuary for Black lives.

She is the recent recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, DC Public Library Maker Residency, and Art on the Vine’s Savage-Lewis Artist Residency (Martha’s Vineyard). Since the start of 2020, she has been in three exhibitions: at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center curated by Kilolo Luckett with collaborator Ayana Evans, at Maryland Institute College of Art curated by Dr. Deborah Willis and at Latchkey Gallery in New York, including a durational performance at The Africa Center, New York.