We recently connected with Ajah Muhammad-Hays and have shared our conversation below.

Ajah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I have been dancing since I was very young and have been painting since 2022. While dancing was something I’ve done for a long time, it was pretty inconsistent due to my changing schools, neighborhoods, and sometimes cities. I definitely moved around a lot and often changed schools after about 1-2 years of being there. Sometimes, the slow learning process was also because of inadequate level placement. If you pick things up quickly then it is very easy to get bored and the drive to continue with the craft dies out.

Overall, I think the skills that were the most essential that I did learn was to have passion in your craft. You can do all the steps correctly and parce every bit of technique, but if there is no life in your movement, then it is bland and no one can see your story or your character.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Ajah Muhammad-Hays, and I was born in Sacramento, CA. I am a dancer trained in ballet, modern, jazz contemporary, tap, Afro Brasilian and West African, as well as a painter. I began dancing at 7 years old, and I started with tap dancing. It was a part of the elementary school curriculum I was in and I pretty much got dropped into the class in the middle of the year. I didn’t think I knew what I was doing at first, but time went by and I realized how naturally easy it was for me and I loved it. The next thing you know, I was in the dance recitals for school! The next year followed and my mom wanted to enroll me in jazz and ballet at a local dance studio in Inglewood, CA and I quickly picked up the steps and became more drawn to dancing and performing. Over the years I picked up different genres of dance to learn in school, at different dance intensives, dance studios or recreation programs and by high school, I knew I wanted to be a professional dancer and perform. I graduated from high school as Salutatorian and went to Arizona State University and received a BFA in Dance (performance and choreography) in 2012.

I came to Los Angeles the same year, to work on my professional dance development at Lula Washington Dance Theatre and joined Viver Brasil dance company the following year. It is a multi faceted company based in afro brasilian dance, history, music and culture with Orixa, Samba, Capoeira, and contemporary dance and I have performed with them for 8 – 10 years. I have also danced with other groups and have been involved in other dance projects throughout the years such as the Sand Dance Project, Extra Ancestral and the MahKween Method.

I got into painting as a self taught artist in 2022 as a coping mechanism for the lack of artistry in my life post pandemic. I took one art class in high school but never looked back at it afterwards because I was mainly dancing, which took up a lot of my time. Due to the lack of accessibility of classes, cancelled performances and closed down businesses and organizations in the dance community, I did not have much access to continue to train as a bare minimum. This quickly built stress, which lead to depression and anxiety because I didn’t know what to expect moving forward or how to give myself a daily routine. So I decided to draw in an old sketch pad to give my mind a break from the “doom and gloom” in my life. This lead to drawing buildings, shading in objects for dimensionality, drawing the same things from different perspectives, then that lead to painting. I became stress free and loved how accomplished and free I felt after I was finished with a sketch or a painting. It was so routine for me that I began painting full canvases in an hour every day. After sometime I had the idea of saling my paintings and I opened up an online shop on Etsy! My work is mostly a mixture of surrealism, architecture and Islamic art. I mainly like to mix colors and blend them well to create an otherworldly theme with very spiritual meanings behind them.

What I am most proud of about myself is how I was able to find the balance with my artistry between striving for greatness through hard work and discipline, yet relaxing into the freedom of my artistry and just surrender to the process no matter how unknown or imperfect it is.

I want people to know that what sets me apart from others is that my artistry is all a spiritual journey and they cannot be separated. I do what I do as a dancer and a painter to show the world what is hidden inside of me.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe that society can support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem by providing mentorship for artists in everyday life as well as the business of the art form itself. There are too many of us with such thriving visions and aspirations for their craft who do not possess the proper information to achieve these aspirations. A lot of times most artists and creatives are stuck learning as they go and everything becomes about trial and error. Instead there should be a good quality mentorship to give us the base knowledge to make our dreams come true: Small things such as, attaining an llc, learning about taxes, getting a business license, business insurance, credit, the audition processes in our fields, starting a savings, etc. A lot of these things may possibly be learned in school, however I find that a lot of artists including myself, do not learn these things.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I actually did not want any social media pages! I had a personal Facebook page but I didn’t get an Instagram page until 2017. The reason for this was because I thought it was too superficial. I thought it was a place where people were online just to show off themselves instead of their minds. I thought it was all vanity…But I was convinced by a couple of close friends that it would make perfect sense for me as an artist to promote myself and my brand. I also took advantage of it because I saw that it was a way to tell a story about myself and my brand. I also realized that it was beneficial for networking and finding other potential career opportunities.

Once I began posting content regularly, I got the hang of telling a story with my content, through themes, captions and colors. It was a good way to tap into my creativity with social media.

A good way to get good audience growth on social media is picking your niche and posting content consistently based on that. Your audience will naturally come to you the more you put yourself out there organically. And PLEASE don’t fake it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ajahm.weebly.com
• Instagram: @ajahbintashabazz @bintashabazzpaints
• Facebook: Ajah BintaShabazz
• Youtube: @ajahbintashabazz8669
• Other: linktr.ee/ajahbintashabazz
  www.etsy.com/shop/bintashabazzpaints

Image Credits

Marcos Lozano
Gia Trovela
Mattia Di Niro
Khwadja Phillip Hadi