Michal Petros
Eritrean-American Cultural Documentarian & Strategic Consultant
Studio Hiwet is named after my aunt, Hiwet, who raised me to understand the value of art, community, and civic engagement. Her early passing taught me something else—to create with intention, and to honor life by living it fully.
ሂወት / Hiwet means “life” in Tigrinya.
The logo’s double dots (፡፡) are the Ge’ez period—read as a double colon in English. This duality reflects the cultural fluency of diasporic experience: rooted in one script, and interpreted through another.
It is within this space—between systems, languages, and ways of seeing—that I continue to explore identity, memory, and connection through image and story.
The Story Behind Studio Hiwet
This practice began in community spaces across continents—supporting public health and development programs in Eswatini, and later building corporate engagement and partnership strategies in New York, while documenting diaspora communities through long-form visual and narrative work.
Across these worlds—corporate and creative, institutional and grassroots—I learned that meaningful cultural work requires both operational rigor and deep listening.
Today
Today, I partner with organizations to translate cultural and organizational complexity into clarity—helping leaders better understand lived experience, navigate cultural and communication gaps, and design internal narratives and engagement strategies that strengthen trust, alignment, and long-term retention.
My work is rooted in documentary practice, informed by global and diasporic perspective, and shaped by experience inside complex institutions.
Life—ሂወት—grows from intentions. Strategy is ultimately what bridges vision and reality.