Malkia Cyril

{{short description|American poet}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Malkia Cyril

| birth_name = Malkia Amala Cyril

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1974|5|2}}

| birth_place =

| death_date =

| death_place =

| education = Sarah Lawrence College (BA)

}}

Malkia Amala Devich-Cyril (born May 2, 1974){{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AzNXZN5BBckC&pg=PA499|page=499|title=Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Cafe|first1=Miguel |last1=Algarin|first2=Bob|last2=Holman|chapter=Notes on the Poets|date=15 August 1994|publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780805032574}} is a poet and media activist best known for spearheading national grassroots efforts of the Net Neutrality campaign,{{cite book |last=Wolfson |first=Todd |date=2014 |title=In The History of Communication |chapter=Digital Rebellion : The Birth of the Cyber Left |location=Urbana [IL] |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252038846 }} framing the discourse on protecting net neutrality as shifting away from the notion of "media democracy" and instead as a case of "media justice." They are the executive director of the Center for Media Justice,{{cite journal |last= Ball |first= Jared A. |date=22 Mar 2014 |title= A New Apartheid: Media Consolidation and Black America |jstor=10.5816/blackscholar.44.1.0047 |journal= The Black Scholar |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=47–57 |doi= 10.1080/00064246.2014.11641211 |s2cid= 147014274 }}{{cite journal |last=Dunbar-Hester |first=Christina |date=2014 |title="Being a Consistent Pain in the Ass": Politics and Epistemics in Media Democracy Work |journal=Journal of Information Policy |volume=4 |pages=547–569 |doi=10.5325/jinfopoli.4.2014.0547 |doi-access=free }} and a co-founder of the Media Action Grassroots Network.

Devich-Cyril's writings on media activism frequently appear in national publications such as Politico, the Huffington Post,List of Devich-Cyril's articles in Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malkia-a-cyril/ and The Guardian[https://www.theguardian.com/profile/malkia-cyril List of Devich-Cyril's articles in The Guardian] Creative writing, including poetry and short-stories, have been published in anthologies such as Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing,{{cite book |year=1995 |chapter=What Has yet to be Sung by Malkia Cyril |editor1-last=McKinley | editor1-first=Catherine E. |editor2-last=DeLaney |editor2-first=L. Joyce |title=Afrekete: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Writing |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780385473552 |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Anchor Books }} Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café,

Cyril also appears in the documentaries Miss Representation and The 13th.

{{cite book |year=1994 |chapter= Blues Tomorrow; Wait by Malkia Amala Cyril |editor1-last=Algarín | editor1-first=Miguel |editor2-last=Holman |editor2-first=Bob |title=Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café |url=https://archive.org/details/aloudvoicesfromn00alga |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=H. Holt }} and In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers.

Devich-Cyril was the spouse of comedian and editor Alana Devich-Cyril, and child of Janet Cyril, an activist in the Black Panther Party.{{Cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Malkia-Cyril-Center-for-Media-Justice-2433790.php|access-date=2016-04-04|date=2012-01-01|author=Jessica Lum|work=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Malkia Cyril, Center for Media Justice}} Born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, Cyril learned to read at the Liberation Bookstore in Harlem. They refer to growing up in the party as "in and of itself a blessing."{{Cite news|url=http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/02/19/lessons-from-growing-up-as-a-black-panther-cub|title=Lessons From Growing Up as a Black Panther 'Cub'|date=2016-02-19|work=KQED News|access-date=2016-04-04|author=Sandhya Dirks}}