Ask Rita Bunatal ’16 what her job title is, and you may get an unconventional answer: “I don’t want to label it as one thing,” she admitted, after spending a few minutes thinking about an answer.
As the founder and creative director of the Malaika Collective, a New York City–based multimedia agency designed to “empower Black creatives.” Bunatal has a wide-ranging skill set that includes marketing, web design, and consulting, making it challenging to come up with a convenient descriptor.
But if you ask Bunatal what she does for a living—her professional North Star—she can answer with excitement. “I’m all about empowering communities,” she said. “I pride myself on being a creative visionary and cultural marketer, and that means having my ear to the ground in various communities—in particular ones that have been underrepresented—and translating their stories in order to tell them with care.”
Exactly how she tells that story varies from community to community—but Bunatal brings the same approach to each one. “As a marketer, you have to be a bit of a snoop to engage with members of a community and find things out about them,” she said. “But when I immerse myself in a community, it’s important that I recognize that I don’t know everything, [and that I] empathize, listen, and not speak over them. We do work with nonprofits who are advocating for people of color, immigrants, and women across the globe.”