Dr. Sabiyha Prince

Anthropologist, artist and filmmaker Sabiyha Prince is a native Washingtonian whose paintings and photographs are aptly represented by the phrase/brand Prince uses to describe her work - Beauty and Justice. As an activist and educator her work on gentrification, environmental justice, anti-racism and anti-militarism are reflected in both her writing and artistic practice. Her work experience is described to the right, This professional trajectory has taken Prince to African, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. An ardent Pan Africanist, much of her work centers on African American experiences in the US - including generations of her own family.  With a doctorate in cultural anthropology and an undergraduate degree in communications arts, her background as a social observer also informs Prince’s filmmaking achievements .

Prince co-directed Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington, DC (2022) with Samuel George and is currently inn production for the upcoming documentary Diminished Returns (2024).

A former faculty member in the department of anthropology at American University, Prince has created American and Black studies curricula and is the author of Constructing Belonging (2) and African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, DC (2014) along with journal articles that explore the impacts of urban change and societal stratification on Black populations. She has also directed educational programming and political mobilization campaigns for The Washington Office on Africa, Greenpeace, USA, and Black Voices for Peace. 

Media appearances include MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera English, WHUR, WOL, WYPR in Baltimore, and the Pacifica Radio network in Washington, DC. 

Education

Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology
City University of New York Graduate School and University Center, New York, NY

BA Communication Arts
Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Exhibitions

Artist in Residence, Petworth Artists Collaborative
Exhibit: Hanks’s Cocktail Bar
May 4th – July 6th, 2018

Coalesced: Colored Nations
Exhibit: The Anacostia Arts Center
May 18th – 22nd, 2018

No Plastic (Crossing Oceans)
The Hill Center Juried by The Corcoran Art Museum
June 27th – September 22nd, 2018

Environmentalism
Exhibit: Zenith Gallery
2019

Women’s History Month
Exhibit: Zenith Gallery
2020

Freezing Time — A Super Power
Exhibit: 11Eleven Gallery
2021

Black Girls Who Paint-Femininity Defined
Exhibit: Online
2021

The November Show
Exhibit: The Art League
November 2021

Art All Night
Exhibit: Zenith Gallery
2021

Solo Show
Exhibit: Bus Boys & Poets/Takoma Park
2022

Collage Exhibit
Exhibit: Hera Hub
October 2022 - January 2023

Black History
Exhibit: Zenith Gallery
2023

Flowering Freedom Exhibit: Black Gotham, NYC December 2023

Pivotal Exhibit: Montpelier Cultutal Arts Center, Laurel, MD December 2023

Experience

President/Senior Researcher
AnthroDocs, LLC, a qualitative research firm and production company. We utilize anthropological data-gathering methods to creates storiesnsupport social justice

Coordinator, Membership and Political Education, Empower DC, August 2018 - present (Board membership October 2016-June 2018/member since 2006)

Board President, Empower DC
August 2017-June 2018

January 2021-Present

Qualitative Researcher, Houses of Worship and the Environment (Wards 7 and 8), Anacostia Community Museum  
September 2014-2015

Humanities Scholar, Greenleaf Gardens History Project,  Washington, DC,
DC Humanities Council grant
Summer 2014

Humanities Scholar, Revisiting Talley’s Corner, Washington, DC,
DC Humanities Council grant
Summer 2014

Adjunct Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Applied Social Sciences, Coppin State University, Baltimore, MD
August-December 2013

Visiting Anthropologist, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Fall 2013

Consultant/Data Analyst, Community Attitudes Toward the Anacostia River
(Wards 7 and 8), Anacostia Community Museum
Summer 2013

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, American University, Washington, DC
August 2003-December 2011

Facilitator, Classlines, The Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, Washington, D.C.  
Fall 2009

Director, Oral History Workshop, The Woolly Mammoth Theater Co., Washington, DC
Fall 2006

Humanities Scholar, Capers, One-woman play with Anu Yadav, DC Humanities Council,
Summer 2005

Facilitator, Oral History Project, Woolly Mammoth Theater Co., Washington, DC
Spring 2005    

Coordinator, Greenpeace Celebrity Tour to Cancer Alley
Louisiana Greenpeace, USA, Washington, DC   (Participants: Alice Walker, Mike Farrell, Maxine Waters, Haki Madhabuti, Melanie Campbell)
September 2000-June 2001