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== Career == == Career ==


Baxter raps under the stage name of Isis Tha Saviour, which she chose for ], the Egyptian goddess of motherhood.<ref name="Paschal2020" /> From 2010 to 2017, Baxter focused on making music and a hip-hop artist career.<ref name=Passerby24/> She performs under the stage name of Isis Tha Saviour, which she chose for ], the Egyptian goddess of motherhood.<ref name="Paschal2020" />

From 2010 to 2017, Baxter focused on making music and a hip-hop artist career.<ref name=Passerby24/>


In 2021, Baxter worked as an office manager for ], which is based in the ].<ref name=Passerby24/> That year, she released ''Consecration to Mary'', a photographic series based on a "sexually exploitative nude photographs of a young Black girl" taken by ], a serial sexual predator,<ref name=Passerby24/> in 1882.<ref name="Brooklyn2023">{{Cite web |title=Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter: "Ain’t I a Woman" |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/mary_enoch_elizabeth_baxter_aint_i_a_woman |website=] |date=2023 |access-date=December 28, 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Baxter superimposes images of herself over the girl in the original photo, creating a new image where the victim is protected.<ref name="Adrian-Diaz2023">{{Cite magazine |title=With Her Lens and Hip Hop, Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter Centers Black Feminism |url=https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/mary-enoch-elizabeth-baxter-centers-black-feminism/ |last=Adrian-Diaz |first=Jenna |magazine=] |date=February 10, 2023 |access-date=December 28, 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="ArtAfrica2023">{{Cite web |title=Ain't I a Woman: Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter at Brooklyn Museum, United States |url=https://artafricamagazine.org/aint-i-a-women-mary-enoch-elizabeth-baxter-at-brooklyn-museum-united-states/ |website=ArtAfricaMagazine.com |date=February 7, 2023 |access-date=December 28, 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Baxter herself has been critical of Eakins, writing an op-ed in the ] "decrying the city’s veneration of Eakins".<ref name="Sutton2021">{{Cite news |title=Hundreds call for reckoning with American artist Thomas Eakins’s troubling legacy |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/12/17/thomas-eakins-reckoning-philadelphia |last=Sutton |first=Benjamin |newspaper=] |date=December 17, 2021 |access-date=December 27, 2024 |language=en}}</ref> In 2021, Baxter worked as an office manager for ], which is based in the ].<ref name=Passerby24/> That year, she released ''Consecration to Mary'', a photographic series based on a "sexually exploitative nude photographs of a young Black girl" taken by ], a serial sexual predator,<ref name=Passerby24/> in 1882.<ref name="Brooklyn2023">{{Cite web |title=Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter: "Ain’t I a Woman" |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/mary_enoch_elizabeth_baxter_aint_i_a_woman |website=] |date=2023 |access-date=December 28, 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Baxter superimposes images of herself over the girl in the original photo, creating a new image where the victim is protected.<ref name="Adrian-Diaz2023">{{Cite magazine |title=With Her Lens and Hip Hop, Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter Centers Black Feminism |url=https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/mary-enoch-elizabeth-baxter-centers-black-feminism/ |last=Adrian-Diaz |first=Jenna |magazine=] |date=February 10, 2023 |access-date=December 28, 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="ArtAfrica2023">{{Cite web |title=Ain't I a Woman: Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter at Brooklyn Museum, United States |url=https://artafricamagazine.org/aint-i-a-women-mary-enoch-elizabeth-baxter-at-brooklyn-museum-united-states/ |website=ArtAfricaMagazine.com |date=February 7, 2023 |access-date=December 28, 2024 |language=en}}</ref> Baxter herself has been critical of Eakins, writing an op-ed in the ] "decrying the city’s veneration of Eakins".<ref name="Sutton2021">{{Cite news |title=Hundreds call for reckoning with American artist Thomas Eakins’s troubling legacy |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/12/17/thomas-eakins-reckoning-philadelphia |last=Sutton |first=Benjamin |newspaper=] |date=December 17, 2021 |access-date=December 27, 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

Revision as of 22:32, 29 December 2024

American multimedia artist and activist
Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter
Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter at the Montclair Film Festival in 2024
Born1981 (age 43–44)
Other namesIsis Tha Saviour
EducationCommunity College of Philadelphia
Occupation(s)Multimedia artist, activist
AwardsAnonymous Was A Woman Award

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is a multimedia artist and activist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best known for creating socially conscious visual art, film, and music, and raps under the stage name of Isis Tha Saviour.

Early life and education

Baxter was born in 1981, and grew up in Philadelphia. As a child, Baxter recalls stealing food stamps from her cousin and cutting them into pieces for use in a collage. She was raised by her mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

In the sixth grade, one of Baxter's artworks was submitted to a local contest by her art teacher. Baxter won, and her work was displayed in a window at a Macy's department store, across the street from Philadelphia City Hall. By age 12, Baxter was a ward of the state.

At the age of 13, Baxter attended Carson Valley School. At the age of 17, she enrolled at Penn State.

In 2007, Baxter was arrested and incarcerated at Riverside Correctional Facility. She was nine months pregnant at the time. Baxter endured 43 hours of labor ending in an emergency C-section, during which she was shackled to her bed the entire time. She was released from prison in 2008.

Baxter holds an associate degree in art and design from the Community College of Philadelphia.

Career

From 2010 to 2017, Baxter focused on making music and a hip-hop artist career. She performs under the stage name of Isis Tha Saviour, which she chose for Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood.

In 2021, Baxter worked as an office manager for Mural Arts, which is based in the Thomas Eakins House. That year, she released Consecration to Mary, a photographic series based on a "sexually exploitative nude photographs of a young Black girl" taken by Thomas Eakins, a serial sexual predator, in 1882. Baxter superimposes images of herself over the girl in the original photo, creating a new image where the victim is protected. Baxter herself has been critical of Eakins, writing an op-ed in the The Philadelphia Inquirer "decrying the city’s veneration of Eakins".

In 2023, Baxter released "Ain't I a Woman", named after the poem Ain't I a Woman? by abolitionist Sojourner Truth. This was an original hip-hop composition released under her performance name Isis Tha Saviour. Baxter drew upon her own experiences of being shackled during childbirth to "underscore the through-lines between mass incarceration and slavery". Author Nicole Fleetwood further writes: "Baxter links the experiences of contemporary black women in US prisons to the experiences of enslaved black women, especially regarding their reproductive labor and the disorganization of the black family by racial capitalism."

Baxter appears alongside Faith Ringgold in the document "Paint Me a Road Out of Here", released in 2024. The film interweaves the stories of Ringgold and Baxter, exploring their efforts to "make change for incarcerated and impoverished women".

Exhibitions

Baxter's work has been exhibited at several venues and on television, including African American Museum of Philadelphia, Ben & Jerry’s Factory (Waterbury Vermont), Eastern State Penitentiary, Martos Gallery, MoMA PS1, and on HBO’s The OG Experience at Studio 525 in Chelsea.

Awards and honors

  • In 2019, Baxter was granted a Leeway Foundation Transformation award
  • In 2022, Baxter received a Artist2Artist Fellowship from the Art Matters Foundation in New York.
  • In 2022, Baxter was named a Corrina Mehiel Fellow.
  • In 2023, Baxter was named a Soros Justice Fellow
  • In 2024, Baxter was the recipient of the Anonymous Was A Woman Award for her "socially conscious music, film, performance and visual art".

References

  1. ^ "2024 - Anonymous Was a Woman". Anonymous Was A Woman Award. 2024. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  2. ^ Paschal, Chiquita (December 3, 2020). "Becoming Isis Tha Saviour". NPR. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  3. ^ Downing, Andy (November 5, 2024). "'Paint Me a Road Out of Here' unpacks the power, limitations of art". MatterNews.org. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  4. ^ Meet Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter. Passerby Magazine.
  5. ^ Voeller, Megan (October 10, 2020). "Philly artists are in the vanguard at MoMA exhibit on art in the age of mass incarceration". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  6. "Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter: "Ain't I a Woman"". Brooklyn Museum. 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  7. ^ Adrian-Diaz, Jenna (February 10, 2023). "With Her Lens and Hip Hop, Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter Centers Black Feminism". Surface. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  8. "Ain't I a Woman: Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter at Brooklyn Museum, United States". ArtAfricaMagazine.com. February 7, 2023. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  9. Sutton, Benjamin (December 17, 2021). "Hundreds call for reckoning with American artist Thomas Eakins's troubling legacy". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  10. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. An Introduction to Visual Culture. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000891584. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  11. ^ Glasgow, Abigail (June 20, 2024). "A Rikers Island Painting Goes on a Powerful Journey in New Documentary Paint Me a Road Out of Here". Teen Vogue. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  12. Fleetwood, Nicole R. (April 28, 2020). Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Harvard University Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780674919228. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  13. Amaya, Sofia Escobar; Greene, Emma (October 2024). "Film Response: Faith Ringgold and Paint Me a Road Out of Here". Colby College. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  14. ^ Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter: 2022 CORRINA MEHIEL FELLOW. Source Studio.
  15. "Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter". leeway.org. 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2024.
  16. Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter. ArtMatters Foundation.
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