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An introvert by nature, Patience Lekien ’16, MFA, admits he’s “not the kind of person you’d expect to see all over social media.” But as an anime fan “from before it was cool,” he’s used Instagram as a platform for getting feedback about his illustrations and ideas. Two years ago, he posted an image of a young girl from Kongo (one of the oldest and most well-documented African kingdoms), encountering ancestral spirits in a forest. More than 9,000 followers told him they wanted to see more.

They’ll get their chance with the release of “MFINDA,” a new animated film now in pre-production with N LITE, a global, multimedia company bringing Black and Indigenous stories to the screen. “‘Mfinda’ is a word in the Kongolese language that means forest, or wilderness or nature, a place where everything comes from,” says Lekien, who was born and raised in the former People’s Republic of the Congo before immigrating to the U.S. at six years old. “It was inspired by my mother’s life, a girl growing up in the Congo during a time of turmoil, transported back in time by her ancestors. It’s really a love letter to my mother.”

A former STEM student planning for a career in medicine, Lekien made a course correction after college, working on a master’s thesis at 51���Ϲ��� that focused on his dual identities as both an African and an American. “I found myself in the middle, and it was hard trying to reconcile my identity, but that’s where everything started and stems from in my work. It’s about trying to create a bridge between the two cultures,” he says. “Once I started to share my thoughts and deep feelings through my art, I found that’s where the growth is, and that’s where the blessings are.”