EMMAI ALAQUIVA | PHOTO BY SYDNEY MARTIN/YA MOMZ HOUSE INC.

Kerfuffle is a cute word usually used to describe minor mix-ups or commotion. Rarely do you hear an artist use it to describe themselves and their artful endeavors.

“I’m a creative kerfuffle, always challenging myself,” multimedia film director and producer Emmai Alaquiva says. “Creative in a sense of the joyous, the love, the positive. The way in which I learned has been conflicting sometimes. But it’s been a beautiful kerfuffle, which is one of my favorite words.”

Growing up in Wilkinsburg, Alaquiva faced economic hardship and personal loss. “I ended up homeless for about a year-and-a-half,” he says. “It wasn’t really the best time, but I’m a strong believer that regrets don’t fit in caskets, and things happen for a reason.”

Alaquiva explains that the conflict wasn’t just in the way he learned his craft but also in his early life struggles. In a way, he is grateful for life’s hard lessons. “It can be a beautiful thing, especially when surrounding creativity,” he says. “I always wanted to challenge myself, always want to question myself.”

As a teenager, Alaquiva fell in love with the vibrant storytelling of hip-hop through the influence of the group De La Soul, a power that offered a lifeline. While working at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty — the bygone venue that, in retrospect, could be considered a nexus for Black creatives — a young Alaquiva wandered up to the office suites upstairs. He noticed an empty office and immediately envisioned it as the place where he would start his own recording studio, Ya Momz House.

The company name isn’t just a nod to his humble beginnings of making beats in his bedroom. It also serves as an homage to his mother (aka Ma Dukes).

“My mom made so many sacrifices for my life,” he says. “It was difficult to raise a Black boy by herself.”

Ya Momz House, officially established in 2001, has grown into one of Western Pennsylvania’s largest Black-owned creative agencies. It delivers cutting-edge and creative art through the mediums of photo, video and audio. The four-time Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award winner’s journey was shaped by mentorship, resilience and a commitment to giving back.

As an extension of Ya Momz House, in 2007, Alaquiva developed Hip Hop on L.O.C.K., an arts education program that uses hip-hop as a tool to educate and empower K-12 students. By investing in young creatives and fostering a collaborative environment, he wants to ensure that doors are opened to young creatives who are interested in the field.

“That’s just another way to be a part of the creative ecosystem: to give back,” he says.

In 2012, the filmmaker made a bold move. He offered his videography services to musical visionary Questlove of the hip-hop group The Roots, gratis. Soon Alaquiva was on his way to Brooklyn, New York, to film Questlove’s Shuffle Culture event. After one more “audition,” filming The Roots Picnic 2012, the young filmmaker had created one of “the most transformative relationships” in his life.

Alaquiva soon leaned more into the transformative power of art. He created an interactive, mixed-media exhibit, “OPTICVOICES: Mama’s Boys,” that orbits the healing of mothers who have lost their sons due to systemic violence. Using “love letters” in the form of photography, film and augmented reality, a positive legacy is secured for the sons taken from them too soon. Among those featured were Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin (who was killed in 2012 by a neighborhood watchman in Florida), and Michelle Kenney, mother of Antwon Rose II (who was killed in 2018 by an East Pittsburgh police officer).

Last year, Pittsburgh received a sneak peek of one of his most recent films, “The Ebony Canal,” a story of Black infant mortality that followed the pregnancies of four women. This documentary, narrated by Academy Award-winner Viola Davis, examines the “HERstoric portal between the disparities of infant mortality and the current state of maternal health orbiting Black women …” he says. “The vision is to move maternal health forward in the journey to save Black mothers and Black babies.” Alaquiva is currently preparing for the work to make its rounds during the film-festival season.

In 2018, former Gov. Tom Wolf appointed Alaquiva to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He has since been elected vice chair of the council. With determination and a supportive community, he broke through barriers. He honors that community by keeping Pittsburgh as his home base.

“I could have gone anywhere,” the storyteller says, “but [as] opposed to being a goldfish in other places, I chose to be a piranha here in Pittsburgh, in my hometown, to put back. I’ve always realized that the best way to move forward is to give back.”

Kahmeela Adams-Friedson is a photographer, producer, podcaster, writer and overall cinephile who enjoys sharing her opinions. She curates Pittsburgh Magazine’s cultural events calendar in each edition in Arts N’at.