Malaika Favorite still recalls the moment that launched her career in color.
At 2 years old, she watched, transfixed, as her grandmother’s rooster hopped on the porch. It was about as tall as she was, but she wasn’t intimidated. She was struck by its red and green feathers, almost iridescent in the glistening, golden Geismar sun. She thought it was beautiful.
“The colors in the plumage were just so amazing,” she says.
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That memory never left her—even today, as her art career has spanned decades, materials and mediums.
Streaking her perspective through poetry, paint, wood and metal, she’s become a figure in the Baton Rouge arts community, known for her vivid murals and exhibits at venues like Baton Rouge Gallery and the West Baton Rouge Museum.
But later this year, her work will be unveiled on perhaps its biggest stage yet—inside Disney.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride is set to debut in late 2024 inside Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. Favorite partnered with the theme parks to create murals inspired by The Princess and the Frog. Her collages, which represent the character Tiana’s life and family in New Orleans, will be the first thing visitors see when they line up at the attractions.
“Maintaining the authenticity of Princess Tiana’s experience as a young Black woman striving to achieve her dream in the soulful backdrop of New Orleans was one of our highest priorities,” Disney Parks representative Carmen Smith said in a press release. “It only makes sense that an extensive search for an artist who could bring our vision to life brought us to Malaika’s doorstep.”
Favorite, 74, says Disney contacted her after viewing her portfolio online. After all, telling authentic Black stories through art is what she has dedicated her career to. She has been commissioned to make art for organizations like The River Road African American Museum, The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the Furious Flower Poetry Conference.
Growing up, Favorite found her voice painting with straight-from-the-tube primary colors. Soon, she graduated from crisp cherry reds and highlighter yellows to deep violets and rich greens—closer to the explosion of color she’s now known for. At East Ascension Senior High School, her teacher Judi Betts encouraged her to pursue art, and she’d later graduate from LSU with a master’s degree in painting.
She says she was always looking for ways to surround herself with art and other artists. And if she didn’t have access to canvasses, she’d paint on materials like washboard or tin.
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Now, thinking about the crowds at Disney seeing her art on such a large scale fills her with the same sense of awe she had looking at that radiant rooster all those years ago.
“Thousands of people I don’t know will see my work,” she says. “It’s wonderful.” malaikafavorite.artspan.com
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Samuel Heisman
This month, Heisman kicks off the second-ever semester at Great Hearts Harveston. The new tuition-free K-7 charter’s classical education approach aims to cultivate the “minds and hearts” of about 700 area students. If his name sounds familiar, it’s because college football’s Heisman Trophy is named after his great, great grand uncle John Heisman. But this Heisman has earned a few accolades of his own. In June 2022, he relocated to Baton Rouge from San Antonio to launch Great Hearts Harveston as its founding head of school. He brings years of experience as a teacher, coach and assistant headmaster at Great Hearts’ campuses in Arizona and Texas.