Summer 2022 Non-Residential Creative Endeavors Fellow Caitlin Abadir-Mullally (kt)

During the summer of 2022, Caitlin Abadir-Mullally (kt) is a non-residential creative endeavors fellow at Sinister Wisdom. We are pleased to introduce kt to the Sinister Wisdom community.

Caitlin Abadir-Mullally (kt) is a Coptic-American Lesbian artist and independent archivist based in Philadelphia. She works to create communities for those who live between spaces. Her research dives into fear, hybridity, queerness, collective thinking, grief, and cultural loss. Caitlin Abadir-Mullally works in sculpture, video, performance, and relationship building. Caitlin Abadir-Mullally is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science with a focus in archival studies. She is passionate about documenting diasporic queer Southwest Asian and North Afrikan joy and complexity, and the agency of the living to decide how their narratives are preserved in her project Saffron.

Saffron is an LGBTQ+ Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) archive. The archive documents, preserves, and shares access to celebration, stories, and moments of joy by diasporic, queer SWANA artists and creators. Saffron is a cherished spice that is versatile in dying fabrics, coloring and flavoring cuisine across the world and involvement with ritual that brings us close to the divine. These qualities mirror my experience of the LGBTQ+ SWANA diaspora. Saffron was incubated during my fellowship with YallaPunk in 2021. This archive is funded by the Leeway Art and Change Grant and will be expanded during my residency with Sinister Wisdom in 2022.

KT in her studio in Philadelphia

Tomb Reveal, Screenprint and Acrylic on Fabric

Mahshi Triptych, Digital Collage

Saffron: An LGBTQ+ SWANA Archive graphic

"Empowerment comes from ideas."

Gloria Anzaldúa

“And the metaphorical lenses we choose are crucial, having the power to magnify, create better focus, and correct our vision.”
― Charlene Carruthers

"Your silence will not protect you."

Audre Lorde

“It’s revolutionary to connect with love”
— Tourmaline

"Gender is the poetry each of us makes out of the language we are taught."

― Leslie Feinberg

“The problem with the use of language of Revolution without praxis is that it promises to change everything while keeping everything the same. “
— Leila Raven