Ty Defoe (Ghiziig)
title here
he / him
Ty Defoe is from the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations is an Interdisciplinary Artist, writer, a two-spirit cultural pioneer, and musician. Ty aspires to an integral approach to artistic projects, social justice, indigeneity, and environmentalism.
Ty gained recognition in many circles around the world including a Grammy Award for his work on “Come to Me Great Mystery.”
He is a seasoned educator at museums, universities, and schools across the United States and Canada. Ty’s global cultural arts and repertoire consists of: the Millennium celebration in Cairo, Egypt with the Call for Peace Drum and Dance Company; traveling throughout Greece, Japan, Turkey for the Ankara International Music Festival, and Festival of World Cultures in Dubai.
Some of his favorite visits have been to his own community where he learned to hoop dance and eagle dance, and play a variety of wooden flutes. Ty is a frequent guest artist at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. and NYC. He has been mentored in traditional arts and storytelling from his long time mentor, Kevin Locke.
Awards include: NEA/NEFA for reconstructing and indigenizing, Drum is Thunder, Flute is Wind, First American in the Arts Outstanding Performance Award, First Americans in the Arts Scholarship Award, an Indigenous Heritage Festival Award: this award is given to artists who have made a major positive impact on indigenous people and rights of the world, and recently a, Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence. Ty was the 2016-2017 Olga J. and G. Roland Denison visiting artist Professor of Native American Studies at Central Michigan University, and 2016 Institute of the American Indian Arts Visiting Artist.
In 2017, Ty and composer Tidtaya Sinutoke were awarded a Jonathan Larson Grant for emerging composers, lyricists and book writers. Ty created the book and lyrics for: Clouds Are Pillows for the Moon (with composer Tidtaya Sinutoke at Yale Institute for Musical Theatre; ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop), Hart Island Requiem (The Civilians R&D Group), Crossing Borders (CAP 21), Red Pine (Native Voices at the Autry; IAIA of Santa Fe), The Way They Lived (Co-collaboration with The Civilians at the Met Museum), and phase 1 of Crane: On Earth, In Sky (Ibex Puppetry at La MaMa Theater, NYC, Lied Center for the Performing Arts, NE).
Ty is a mentor for Hawaiian Theatre Initiative, a member of East Coast Two-Spirit Society, and is a co-founder of Indigenous Direction.
His writing can be viewed in the Pitkin Review, Woody Guthrie Anthology, the Thorny Locust Magazine, and Howlround.
He has received degrees from CalArts, Goddard College, and NYU’s Tisch, and is a Theater Communications Group Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fellow alum and an artEquity facilitator.
He lives in NYC and loves the color clear, and guest appeared on Netflix show, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” as Young Anthony Black Elk. For more info please visit: tydefoe.com
meet the team
zau chea
Communications Coordinator
Ty Defoe (Ghiziig)
Core Facilitator
Tiffany “Ti” Wilhelm
Core Facilitator + Board Member
Shannon Brunette
Board Emeritus
Seena Hodges
Core Facilitator
Savannah Ritz Villarreal
Program Coordinator
Patric Madden
Development Manager
Nissy Aya
Core Facilitator
Nijeul X
Board Member
Michael Robertson
Deputy Director
Melissa Kievman
Board Member
Mauricio Tafur Salgado
Core Facilitator
Leslie Ishii
Core Facilitator
Kendra Hale
Administrative Coordinator
Kendra Ann Flournoy
Interim Operations Manager
John Rooney
Core Facilitator
Chiedu Egbuniwe
Board Member
Carmen Morgan
Founder + Executive Director
Ai Miyamoto Kelley
Director of Communications & Marketing Ai Miyamoto Kelley title here she / her Ai Miyamoto Kelley specializes in creating and sustaining authentic relationships between non
Alexis Green
Program Producer