If I can’t find anybody, I will build something on my own and learn from all the people that I can.
Malik Walker’s family has called Alamance County home for four generations, passing down the same house that Malik now resides in. When Malik and his fiancé moved into the house a year after Malik’s great grandmother’s passing, they found generations’ worth of family belongings. Malik knew he had to make his new house into a home rather than a memorial, which meant finding new homes for many of these belongings. Even so, Malik feels deeply connected to his ancestors, especially his great grandmother and her mother. Whenever he cooks, he feels their presence and knows that, even though they have passed on, their spirit lives on with him and in his work.
Malik owns a baking business, Melville Bakery & Co., which he named in honor of the people who helped and supported him along the way. Growing up in Alamance County, Malik noticed the lack of Black bakers, which inspired him to build something of his own and be the representation he never had. Community is very important to him, and he is always trying to learn from people in the community who have been baking for a long time.
As a gay man growing up in Alamance County, Malik has experienced harmful stereotyping. Oftentimes, people expect gay men to do things such as baking, but Malik wants to show them that there is professionalism in it. To him, baking is so much more than a hobby; it’s movement, it’s the way he feels like life should be lived. Despite these assumptions, Malik appreciates all the ways in which Alamance County is changing for the better and is proud to be a part of it.