Raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, MacKenzie had early interests in fantasy novels, global history and engineering. Moving to Washington, DC in 2015 to get a degree in American Studies with a minor in Film and Media Studies, MacKenzie grew connected to the rich landscape and public memory work across the Mid-Atlantic region, deepening her fascination with local struggles for sovereignty. While enrolled at Georgetown University, MacKenzie joined the Kalmanovitz Initiative for the Working Poor, working with various local grassroots organizations in the anti-war, labor, Black feminist and abolitionist movements as a community organizing fellow. Her skills in media and communications sharpened at these organizations as she managed programs and built narrative strategies. She also worked on food access projects and small businesses, spending many early morning hours vending at farmers markets across the city.
Her time organizing in DC would greatly influence her storytelling practice, rooted in radical imagination and collective work. During the pandemic in 2020, MacKenzie’s criticisms of the restaurant industry would push her to produce two major projects, culinary fiction zine Village X Magazine and short film, Feed/back (2021). She served as the editor-in-chief for the zine’s ten volumes, also contributing short stories like “A Seeds a Star by Michael Clay”, “Those Who Run”, “Last of the Listening People” and “Sea Above the Sea”. She also contributed recipes to the zine, with one recipe, “Moses’ Waffles” being included in the National Museum for Women in the Arts’ Reclammation exhibit in 2021. Alongside making an entry into the self-publishing world, MacKenzie wrote, directed and edited Feed/back, interviewing five former restaurant employees and incorporating the documentary-style narrative with a speculative story about MICRO, an AI android programmed to work in a restaurant in the year 2050. For Feed/back, MacKenzie was awarded Best Director (DMV Short Film Festival) and Honorable Mention for Best Documentary Short (Workers Unite Film Festival).
As a multidisciplinary artist and media strategist, MacKenzie continues to produce work collaboratively to develop short films, publications, productions, and graphic designs amongst other mediums of storytelling. As a media professional, MacKenzie is committed to amplifying the stories of early career storytellers and growing movements, while in her art practice, MacKenzie works to integrate research, print and digital media, speculation and memory as expressions of faith in Black, sovereign futures. MacKenzie’s examinations of Black ecologies, histories and fictions persist at the insistence of her ancestors. Check out her portfolio to view some of her work over the years.