Welcome to The Wax Factory
A space for artistic expression and inspiration.
Welcome to The Wax Factory
A space for artistic expression and inspiration.
A space for artistic expression and inspiration.
A space for artistic expression and inspiration.
The Wax Factory is an accessible artist community located in the Edison Neighborhood of Kalamazoo. Our goal is to create affordable workspaces where artists can collaborate, be productive, and let out the creativity that is inside of them. Please contact Matthew with any questions you may have.
Your contribution will go towards supporting a growing artist community in the Edison Neighborhood of Kalamazoo.
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Maya James is an artist, writer, creator, dancer, tarot reader and activist based in the Kalamazoo, Michigan area. Her works center around feminism, anti-racism, socialism and her experience as a cross-cultural black American from a racially hostile town in Northern Michigan.
As a young freelance journalist, James’ works were featured in the New York Times Race/Related, USA Today College, and YR Media. As an artist, James’ works exhibited during Artprize 2018 at the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives (which won best juried venue) and 2021 at the Fountain Street Church and a sponsored mural in Calder Plaza, the Dennos Museum, the Black Arts and Cultural Center and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.
Maya was the first black female recipient of the National Arab American Museum City Hall Art Space Residency in 2019, and she has been a speaker at numerous events on the importance of black liberation in arts and media. She is author and illustrator of Maamoul Press’s graphic novel “LUKUMI”, a story of the importance of black female solidarity and friendship and Afro-Atlantic faith.
In her free time, Maya James organizes community events for black liberation, like the Juneteenth Celebration with the Vine Neighborhood Association she founded, several marches for George Floyd and ABOLISH ICE. She considers herself a soldier for abolition, anti-racism, feminism and freedom unapologetically and at the same time.
Maya is the muralist behind “Faces”, a depiction of 94 faces of police violence and mob brutality permanently installed on the side of J-Bird Vintage in the vine neighborhood of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the fence mural on the Ferraro fence on Davis Street in the Vine Neighborhood. Her work has been featured in numerous articles in the southwest Michigan area and she has shown at many Art Hops, galleries and local businesses in her area. https://www.woodtv.com/news/kzoo-and-bc/kzoo-artist-paints-mural-depicting-the-faces-of-injustice/
https://wwmt.com/news/local/quilt-of-faces-mural-unveiled-in-the-vine-neighborhood-of-kalamazoo
Maya also created “Faces, Pt. II”, a collection of portraits of black women throughout time who changed history as we know it, along with a key with all the accolades of their achievements and the obstacles they faced in their lives to achieve positive change as a sponsored artist in Artprize 2021 in Calder Plaza.
1809 Reed Avenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49001, United States
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