Magalie Kalukula

Project: Studio Commons is an evolving community-based media and cultural infrastructure project exploring how Black women in Harlem can use cinema and prototype gathering spaces to tell their own stories on their own terms. The project centers storytelling, self-representation, public memory, and community-based cultural life.

Magalie Kalukula is a strategist, researcher, community mentor, and emerging media maker whose work is grounded in a lived understanding of care, access, and belonging. Growing up in North Philadelphia, her family relied on social services from Saint Francis Inn in the Kensington neighborhood, which shaped how she came to understand the importance of local institutions and the dignity they can provide.

While studying engineering at Temple University, Kalukula worked with the Community College of Philadelphia Gateway Program, supporting students in STEM and languages while helping them navigate the larger realities of college life. Many students were balancing school with work, family responsibilities, and uneven academic preparation. That experience taught her that mentorship is not only about teaching material. It is also about helping people build confidence, navigate systems, and see themselves as capable of continuing.