Alayna N. Pernell is a visual artist, writer, and educator who examines the experience of Black American women. She earned a BFA from University of Alabama and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationwide at venues including Refraction Gallery, in Milwaukee; Colorado Photographic Arts Center, in Denver; and Griffin Museum of Photography, in Winchester, Massachusetts. Alayna received the James Weinstein Memorial Award (2020-2021), the Snider Prize (2021), and the Mary L. Nohl Fellowship (2023). Her name appears on the Silver Eye Center of Photography Silver List (2022), Photolucida’s Critical Mass Top 50 (2021), and a Lenscratch Student Prize Honorable Mention (2021).