Maddy Clifford is a Bay Area-rooted arts leader and economic justice organizer. Born and raised in Seattle, her creative career coincided with a deep involvement in social justice movements — youth empowerment, racial justice, underground hip-hop, Black feminism, and more. She spent a decade teaching creative writing in youth detention centers, on college campuses and internationally in Uganda and Argentina. Her work as an educator helped strengthen hundreds of young people’s emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills, as well as overall literacy rates.

Maddy prioritizes praxis but also holds an MFA in poetry and has served as Cultural Strategist in Government with the City of Oakland. Her writing has appeared in Teen Vogue and Hammer & Hope; she was featured on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and collaborated with More Perfect Union. She has also released a number of hip-hop musical projects, including a short-form album called, downCHANTS and the forty minute musical score for a Aerial dance piece called, Apparatus of Repair, with Flyaway Productions. Most recently, Maddy served as Grassroots Artist Advocacy Fellow with CA for the Arts. She currently works as Creative Media Strategist at Debt Collective, the nation's first union for debtors.

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