This article is part of a column called Philly Profiles, which features in-depth profiles of local moving-image artists and cultural workers, including their body of work, inspirations, and upcoming projects. The column is written by cinéSPEAK Philly Cultural Critics Fellows.
With an art practice rooted in self-compassion and discovery, Philadelphia-based multimedia artist Rashid Zakat seeks to channel liberation. Zakat is a filmmaker, DJ, and self-described “collector and curator of internet culture.” His first solo exhibition, Uses of the Ironic, challenged media conventions in favor of a visual and sonic world that embraces humor. Hosted in 2024 at Asian Arts Initiative, Uses of the Ironic offered viewers an entry point into Zakat’s expansive career in film, video, and music. The exhibition showcased his refined eye through collaged video, AI-intervened pieces, and digital image. Developed through collaboration and an emphasis on audience interconnectedness, Zakat’s work is intertwined with, in his own words, “aliveness and play.”
Zakat attributes much of this approach to his upbringing in the Pentecostal church. “What I got out of the church was the sense of gathering, this idea of what happens when a lot of people come together to do something,” says Zakat. Although he no longer practices Christianity, the church’s communal power, high energy style, and deep sense of spirituality created a lasting impression. “I am now making art that is really helping me interrogate that—my relationship with spirituality, my relationship with the church, my relationship with the apparatus that created the church, and my investigations of those things through whatever modality I find myself interested in,” he explains.
Zakat’s career includes credits as a cinematographer on local productions such as M. Asli Dukan’s afro-futurist epic Resistance: The Battle of Philadelphia, as well as an extensive resume creating and directing videos for high-profile artists and institutions, including India.Arie, Soul Train, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and BlackStar Film Festival. Despite working with many mainstream clients, his approach to filmmaking is definitely unconventional. “Even in the way that I want to tell stories and explore and experiment with video, it was never linear,” says Zakat. “There was always some immersive or interactive component. I was never interested in making a narrative film—I want to, maybe one day—but what you could do with this medium was really fascinating to me.”
Zakat’s interest in film as a shapeshifting medium gradually found its way into his day job. “I worked for a long time producing videos for Philly Tourism, and I was always trying to work in my little ideas about art and film in those videos,” he says. Bending formal narrative rules and incorporating a multiplicity of types of media into his work eventually led Zakat to identify his practice as video art. This shift, alongside his work as a DJ, shaped his ongoing iterative project, Revival!: An Audio-Visual Meditation. An immersive art installation that evokes the feeling of a dance party, Revival! is also something Zakat describes as an attempt to “recreate church.”
“I have a lot of video in my archive that I would DJ the way you would DJ music, and do these video sets that are danceable too,” says Zakat. Connecting DJing, video, and dancing is also his way of exploring his fascination with the Holy Spirit. “When I think about the Holy Spirit, the same idea that I get of an elder throwing up their walker in the air and doing back flips down the aisle—that same exuberance, that same sort of freeness—is the same thing I see on a dance floor,” he says.
For Zakat, these moments of collective movement and communion with music are not just about pleasure or performance, but also offer the chance to access something deeper. He says, “When you hear your favorite song and then the DJ plays the next song and the next song. It’s so addictive, it’s euphoric, but it’s also connected to flow. The things that connect you to a source, or connect you to your life force, also connect you to purpose. That, beyond logic, fills you up with feeling and emotion—and that’s the closest way for us to touch liberation.”
In Revival!, Zakat also uses humor to pull apart different aspects of Black Christian culture. “A lot of my sets will poke fun at or make light of certain things within Black Christian culture, with the idea of showing how much of Black culture is wrapped up in it,” says Zakat. “There’s something about Black Christian culture to me, because maybe we as Black folks—folks that were forcibly brought to this country—had to hide our spiritual and worship practices. A lot of our practices got hidden in Christianity, and I’m trying to string that out as much as I can.”
For Zakat, this exploration will continue to expand this year through a new iteration of Revival!. He is working with Art Philly on an installation as part of their inaugural city-wide multi-disciplinary arts festival, What Now, taking place May 27-July 4. The festival will feature more than 30 original creations from Philly artists interpreting the current moment in American history, leading up to the city’s celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. While Zakat’s past installations were presented in more traditional gallery settings, (like The Fabric Workshop and Museum) or as part of cultural events (like the Philadelphia Fringe Festival), this version of Revival! will take place in a variety of outdoor public spaces selected by Zakat, and culminating in a full-day event. Billing itself as an opportunity for a chance encounter with art, it will also allow for open community discussions among attendees.
Minimizing the video DJing component, this one will be more interactive and community-minded. “We got a little support from Art Philly to really do a full day of church,” says Zakat. “Have a choir, have people come speak, have yoga, breath work, and meditation stations and workshops for folks, with lots more happening—lots more craziness.” Emphasizing the connection between gathering, art, and spiritual practice, Zakat adds that “the act of bringing people together to do something is really important.”
Zakat has also brought aspects of Revival! to a current exhibition at TILT Institute for the Contemporary Image called Homeboyz in Innerspace. The exhibit is collaborative with two other Philadelphia-based artists, David Evan McDowell and Lendl Tellington. The exhibition incorporates multiple perspectives on media and spirituality, as the curatorial statement describes, “Although raised within disparate traditional religious frameworks, this brotherhood found their respective spiritual grounding and expression through their individual artistic practices, pop culture, and music. Their collective offerings explore the intricate intersections between spirituality, masculinity, and community.”
Working as part of a collective like this perfectly aligns with Zakat’s current trajectory of moving toward communal artistic practice and exhibition. His piece in the exhibit is a two-hour installation from the first iteration of Revival! that looks at “how the Black church kind of has spilled into these different places in American culture, from rap to the ballroom to jazz music,” Zakat explains. He will also host a live Revival! event in March as part of the gallery programming.
Like for many other local artists, Philadelphia has a special place in Zakat’s heart. “I love this raggedy little city,” he says. “I know some of the best people in the world that—even if they don’t still live in Philadelphia—have come into Philadelphia, passed through Philadelphia, were born here, or are still here.” Expanding on what it’s like to be part of the city’s creative scene, he adds, “There’s a magical group of people that—within varying concentric circles of an art scene in Philly—I’ve been lucky enough to be in. It’s incredible. People challenge me on my bullshit. In all of the ways that I think a human being can grow, I’ve been lucky enough to do it in this community. If you’re showing up, if you’re consistent, if you’re dedicated, if you are about the work, about the community, you’re about the people—Philly will reward you.”
Closing his conversation with cinéSPEAK, Zakat shares,“The thing that I’m most proud of is the way this next iteration is coming together. I am proud of myself, but it’s really about bringing together all of the brilliant people I know who have been impactful to my creative, spiritual, and intellectual development. Bringing all the parts of my life—from being a church boy, to doing jam sessions, to being the video person—into one place, and hopefully spreading it to enough people that they can be part of that experience too.”
Attend Revival! at Tilt on March 12, and check out Homeboyz in Innerspace through March 21. Follow Zakat to learn more about upcoming iterations of Revival! and his evolving work.
*Featured Image: Image of Rashid Zakat with projections at BlackStar. Photo credit: Lendl Tellington.
Maria “Nenet” Barrios is an Argentine-born and Philadelphia-based writer and music journalist. Specializing in storytelling that spans decades of Latin music, her work has been featured in publications including The Washington Post, Bandcamp Daily, and Grammy.com. Nenet is a 2025 cinéSPEAK Philly Cultural Critics Fellow.
