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Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz

@mijancelie

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Art.
Ritual.
Culture.
Oral history.
Civic engagement.
Also: I ❤️ and research worldbuilder archives.

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We’re excited to welcome Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz mijancelie as our Summit keynote! Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, Ed.D., is a 2019 Kennedy Center Citizen Artist who moves between oral history, art, ritual, and civic engagement to produce meaningful, forward-facing cultural projects.

Mi’Jan was a 2023–2024 Mellon Foundation Fellow at the Huntington Library, where her research with Octavia E. Butler’s archives continues to unfold. In 2023, she served as a Fulbright Specialist in Ecuador, advising Universidad de las Artes on pedagogical framework design.

Previously, Mi’Jan curated and hosted Unfinished Network’s inaugural salon on themes of multiracial democracy; designed and led Gloria Steinem Initiative’s public policy storytelling pilot; and held appointments at Columbia University, NYU, and Banff Centre.

Register for the Summit today > link in bio by @mijancelie

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8 months ago

What if 2025 was the year we learned to truly take care of ourselves?

Not in a capitalist, individualistic way but in a political and collective one.
🌍 In a system that damages our bodies and minds, in a structurally racist and sexist world, the life expectancy of marginalized people—especially racialized women—is shorter than that of white men.

And yet, so many racialized women dedicate themselves to building a fairer future for the next generations. This work is essential, but it can also take a heavy toll on them.

💛 Today, I want to thank all these amazing women. And to remind you, if needed, that taking care of ourselves is about not dying too young but, above all, about living with dignity and ensuring that we can truly enjoy life.

Huge thanks to Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz for this important message!

🎧 The full episode of Nos héritages is available on all streaming platforms and in video format on YouTube (link in bio) taken in Brussels, Belgium by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Loving and liberated futures ✨️

How can we tell stories that honor the past while making meaning of the present and envisioning liberated and loving futures ?

🎧 Listen to the full episode on your favorite streaming platform or on YouTube in video format (links in bio) !

📍The episode was produced by @sarraelma taken in US Embassy Brussels by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Oral history, a tool for healing and social change ✨️

Join us to explore the art and significance of oral history with Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz, a Black American and documentarian.

A compelling episode that sheds light on the role of representation, the power of archiving stories, and the importance of cultural memory. Perfect for anyone passionate about history, storytelling, and community-building !

🎧 The full discussion is available on all streaming platforms and in video format on YouTube (links in bio)

📍This episode was produced by @sarraelma. Mixing and sound design by @malykamusic. Special thanks to @roger_dushime and to the US Embassy in Brussels team

#noshéritages #heritage #podcast #podcastbelge #oralhistory #storytelling #representation #archives #archiving #socialchange #culture taken in US Embassy Brussels by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

1.Barnraising with fancy folks. An extremely overwhelming public/work/spiritual/life experience from last week. Giving thanks for remembering and sharing Octavia’s hype choir notes.

2.Sankofa: at the end of every oral history recording I ask “what’s your sankofa story? What do you go back to the past to retrieve, so that you may move forward into the future in right and good ways?” I nearly jumped out of my skin the time that I recorded @thenathop at Kennedy Center and she showed me her sankofa tattoo.

3.Narrators sometimes become my hilarious, inspirational friends who lure co-conspirators…

4.like ringleader @beingbrina aka the person who is always down to clown and simultaneously gives me reasons to wear leather mini skirts to fireside chats & master classes devoted to Black women who honor our unique practices of freedom-dreaming.

5 & 6.Love letters get stashed in the walls for circulation and safe keeping, giving me hope all around this swing state’s cafes.

7.My (micro) weekly love letter writing practice, part 1

8.Last week I closed out my 2023 - 2024 “Designing Dreams” series of keynotes and master classes. This week I step into the “Poetry of Seasons” for however long, beginning with this year’s Oral History Association keynote address. My intention? A peak into my weekly love letter writing & reading practice for the most speculative thinkers & believers among us.

xo,
M by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Hello family, and new & old friends,

I safely made my flight and we are about to depart.

I started crying last night before my farewell dinner with Queen I, and have been crying on-and-off since then (except for the part when I surprised my bestie in the middle of her work shift delivering babies with the news that I got us Andre 3000 tickets!!!!!!!!!!)

As they keep saying here, in a million different expressive ways: D’accord.

There’s really no clear way for me to articulate the last two months, so I refuse to try. Much too big.

Besides, farewells are not my forte…good beginnings and incredible middles are where I shine and draw the most comfort, enthusiasm and joy,

I never expected to fall deeper in love with my creative practice, the daughters & sons of Congo/Ghana/Haiti, my pride in our Diasporas, following my purpose etc.

And I had so many nighttime prophetic dreams with God, Octavia’s protagonists, and Orishas!!

Querida Aurélia, you are right: we learn to cook by feeling, not through written recipes.

Paris, please take the very best care of my baby girl, Queen I.

Everyone in the Americas, I will see you soon soon.

Giving thanks.

xo,
Mi’Jan
ps: only bearable part of this farewell is knowing that I am seeing my son in a few short days…I have been missing him terribly!! thank you for calling me this morning, sweetie.

pps: yes, I learned how to make crepes from scratch, in Bordeaux, from a baker’s daughter…while wearing my adorable Oaxacan apron that Aurélia bought with me. The apron (and Aurélia’s teachings) travel with me everywhere. Also, the obvious, even if slightly scorched: I’m becoming the kind of cook/oral historian/storyteller who learns to make through the world’s hearts. taken in Paris, France by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

September 4, 2024
U.S. Embassy Rome.

I am still processing deep moments from my “Designing Dreams. Tending to Our Stories” masterclass and talk last week.

Many, many things are sticky…

There’s a reason why I always invite people to bow heads and close their eyes together, before I start spinning stories…not to fall asleep, but to clear the way from outer and inner distractions.

The tender way that people felt shaking - and holding - my hand.

The stories they told and oral history prompt questions they devised (so quickly!!).

Their recognition of Ancestor Octavia E. Butler (all the way in Rome!!?!!)

That one question that was gifted to me at the end of the last q&a: for someone whose work is rooted to and depends on belonging, honor, seeking home, vulnerability…how do I know what part of me to keep for myself, and what of me that is meant to share?

Please know that there are times when I am reliably aware of when I will cry in the middle of a keynote, masterclass or interview…I still publicly share it, I just say why it’s hard or joyful. This is an easy/hard thing for me to be transparent about, and practice a year after my Dad’s passing.

People generally understand loss and mourning.

And then there are these ephemeral moments that catch my heart off guard, in real-time during public programming; I get reminded of why I am grateful to be chosen by my creative practice, nestled inside of the life that I have decided to inhabit.

Last week’s teaching/learning alongside generous story makers and young leaders? For now I’m giving big thanks.

xo,
M
ps: Rome, I’m sending you my oral history “cheat sheet” right now, I promise 😄 taken in US Embassy Rome by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

1. Amy “Star” x Mi’Jan Celie. Oaxaca, Mexico. May 2024.

Amy’s my mentor who helped me build my first oral history / qualitative research project.

I got to finally thank her last night, in person, for the past year’s fellowship awards, which financially allowed me something rare in the States: full bereavement leave when my Dad passed, after caretaking and witnessing his mind and body die across 7 years.

2. This hilarious, epically tall Nigerian man sat down with me and my friend on Saturday, spinning all kinds of wild stories and jokes, while shuffling cards. One thing that got my attention? A Nigerian expression called “touch and follow.”

3. Amy Starecheski x Mi’Jan Celie. New York, NY. March 2023. The exact day that I happened to receive the news about my Mellon appointment to research Octavia’s archives, that Amy nominated me for.
We had no idea the news would come when I was in town, or that our scheduled dinner would turn into a celebration.
I remember a few things about that night, for sure, but one of the best? When Amy hugged me super big and whispered into my ear, “you are so easy to believe in, Mi’Jan.”

—
I wonder if “touch and follow” could be expanded outside of romantic notions of juju spells…and used to describe the kind of constellation magic between humans who choose to consistently dream and worldbuild together, care and tend to each other, while collecting stories during these particular times.

xo,
M

#oralhistorian taken in El diario del migrante by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Querida Octavia,

Estoy en dos caminos, with a side of spicy overlap.

Last week I went into my editorial team meeting thinking that we were having a personal check-in, so I went first, talking about my private romantic love life. How there is a diplomat who has been crushing on me for a few months, but more importantly, how he is the very first person to characterize my life and the way that I move through the world as “reasonable.”
Not wayward, eccentric, or chaotic.
But: reasonable.

Which prompted me to genuinely revisit the years of super negative messaging that I have received and internalized about the romantic possibilities for someone like me.

Then I started talking to the editors about my hyper curiosity related to worldbuilding, specifically applied to the tangible inner worlds of Black women & femme’s romantic love lives.

Next thing I know, the editors are going wild, private messages are pinging everywhere, and a unanimous decision has been reached. I am to write a personal essay on this topic, and research the vast archives of our institutional partners (starting with the Smithsonian, though I wish that I could also include and digitally access Charles “Teenie” Harris’ prints too!!)

This week I earn my keep by seeking - and finding- the archival remnants of other “reasonable” free Black women who were worldbuilders of their love lives too.

—

In my 1:1 yesterday, one of my editors gave me some researcher advice that made me cry, signing off on the meeting by saying how excited she is to see where and how this essay - and my worldbuilding love life - evolve.

—

Octavia, please know that I will always keep your pep talks and writer’s notes in my back pocket.

However these days I am also remembering something a future-ancestor genius writer friend taught me. Toast to the goodness that abounds? Definitely, yes. Be in ripe community? Claro! But always get around to doing the writing that I’m paid to do, while living under this beautiful Mexican sun.

xoxox,
M
ps: @pocoapocoapoco tias y madres…get the kitchen & mezcal ready for another round of chisme y chistes taken in CDMX by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Querida Octavia,

I received beautiful writer milestone news yesterday, that was properly celebrated last night.

This morning? I am paying the price jajajajajajaja

Sending my love & gratitude to you - wherever your spirit floated - for your eternal inspiration.

Xo,
M taken in CDMX by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Querida Octavia,

Some micro April life moments…

1. That time that I got invited to Sundance’s first Mexico City festival // melted down because I didn’t pack an outfit for the red carpet event // cried (over text) to Wil and he replied “When are you doing your shopping? Can I join you + coffee? “ and then he makes me look like THIS as my “backup look”

2. There are movie theaters, and then this other category, for our movie pleasure, ie an incredible space to spend 4 days

3, 4 & 5. Phung.
Being her friend is a constant gift exchange.
I gift mezcal and popup on her doorstep.
Her home offers myriad altars, art and books, as assorted reminders to “Love Yourself Long Time.”
Phung includes me in her protective prayers, while also reminding me to leave your archives early, Octavia, so that we have enough time to celebrate what is good in our lives, over fancy sake and way too much excellent Japanese food.

6. A time capsule memory from my April 2023 keynote at Scripps, with one of my Narrators, Ken Gonzales Day.
It still holds up as a good teaching, from the smart world of Burlesque: richness is on the other side, when we can slow down, to honor the feelings that are present.
Slowness = enough room to be safe & savor.

7 & 8. More good reminders about how to move when life is a renovation project, courtesy Huntington Library and Guadalupe sightings on the streets (everywhere!!) of CDMX.

xo,
M taken in CDMX by @mijancelie

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2 years ago

Querida Octavia,

Estoy apriendo new ways of seeing.

Estoy bien, being a beginner. To be at the start of practicing.

In an intergenerational room of string players.

Sitting at a table of tamale masters. (Even if my only contribution was cracking jokes while watching Big Oaxaqueña Business, timidly in awe).

Ojala que cuando I return, I will…

Go to the coast and begin learning how to make Balam’s mama’s tamales.

Clap loud and hard in the front row of more sweet genius friends after their charla artistas, who take the time to tell exquisite Oaxacan stories.

Stay mesmerized watching the shyest friend dance salsa. But when I return I will skip learning that (for now 😂), in favor of a slower bachata.

—
Querida Octavia, my heart woke up again, here.

Which is another way of saying that I have a new hyper curiosity: it’s rooted to Desire, Oaxacan style.

I feel like my outsider eyes are witnessing their mix of sabor…con sazón.

It reminds me of the things that tango and burlesque teach, as a mandate: to learn by touch/breathing/doing/leading/following. Not by seeing, talking, reading about it lol.

Flavor, with soul that is uniquely, slowly savored.

I am returning to you and your archives, querida Octavia.

But not for too long.

Luvia and Evelyn are right. I have become a visitor at home in the States; the imagination of Oaxacan friends has chosen to plant and bloom me.

Giving thanks.

xo,
M taken in Oaxaca by @mijancelie

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3 years ago