Charlyn/Magdaline Griffith/Oro

Charlyn/Magdaline Griffith/Oro examines communication between the dead, living, and yet to be born. They are a researcher and artist/activist creating performance, objects, and imagery as rituals for strengthening the potency of Black and Indigenous memory and imagination. They have participated in the Chronicling Resistance fellowship with the Philadelphia Area Special Collections Libraries, focusing on migration between the Arawak islands (so called West Indies) and Lenapehoking (so called Philadelphia). Trained as a Sociologist and Ecologist, with a long career in social justice, their abolitionist framework and specialization in community health and art education supports their emerging art practice. Charlyn is a Black, Queer parent of Mathias (Math), Compton, and Ayay. They were born in London, England to a Trinidadian mother and Guyanese father. They live and work alongside homesteads in Lenapehoking (Philadelphia) & Chemehuevi land (Joshua Tree, CA).