Maddy “MADlines” Clifford is an Oakland-based writer, musician and organizer. She has a notable career highlighted by her eight-year tenure as a Poet in Residence at the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center.
Following this, Maddy released a solo album titled "downCHANTS" and composed a forty-minute musical score for the aerial dance piece "Apparatus of Repair" in collaboration with Flyaway Productions. Her latest project is a video-podcast called "What’s Pimpin’?" produced with KQED Arts. Last year she was chosen to be Cultural Strategist in Government with the City of Oakland’s Environmental and Sustainability Department.
Maddy’s artistry is anchored in Black feminist praxis, adopting bold and playful tactics to recognize commonalities in our collective struggles. Maddy currently works as Creative Media Strategist with Debt Collective, the nation’s first union of debtors. She has collaborated with More Perfect Union; her written contributions can be found in Prism Reports and Teen Vogue.
revolution
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radical love
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revolution • radical love • creativity •
Maddy works as Creative Media Strategist with the Debt Collective - the nation's first union of debtors.
Image by TK of Stay Diff Studios, Oakland
Maddy was part of a Next Level, USA cohort of Hip-Hop Teaching Artists who traveled to Argentina to teach workshops.
Maddy performed alongside fellow poets for a Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) event
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! Photo by Dante Kaleo
Debt Collective pulled up to Leimert Park, LA to host a Jubliee Pop-up, celebrating debtors' brave testimonies and releasing the shame and stigma of owing the 1%
Photo by TK of Stay Diff Studios
BTS from the God Code Cypher feat. RyanNicole, Coco Peila, Talia and Shy'An. Commissioned by The Black Woman is God.
Maddy teaching Seattle youth participants in The Residency - a cutting-edge Hip Hop camp sponsored by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, ArtsCorps and the MoPOP Museum.
BTS of the God Talk feat. Xiomara video shoot, directed by Contessa Gayles
Maddy created the hashtag #Brujalyfe in 2015 and went on to spearhead several local events that amplified the voices and visions of BIPOC healers and creatives in Oakland.
Maddy posing alongside youth participants in her girls empowerment through poetry workshop at College Track in the Bayview HuntersPoint. She held a poetry and performance series at the site for three years.
Another flyer from a #Brujalyfe event
Featured artist for Any Given Monday with Goldbeams
The first ever #Brujalyfe event in 2015
Featured panelist for Women in Music Festival's Hip-Hop panel
Maddy poses with a youth participant in UC Berkeley's Summer Bridge Program.
Single "Heavenly" with cover art by Vanessa AGANA Espinoza
Mural by Vanessa AGANA Espinoza
Site Publication - Art by Tanna Tucker, poems by incarcerated kids
Free Me Fast piece by Joshua Mays (commissioned by Maddy Clifford, SFAC and SFPL)
Performance for Karl Marx's 100th Birthday. Commissioned by the Goethe Institute, SF
Another site publication. Art by Tanna Tucker, poems by incarcerated kids.
Culminating performance alongside students in Kampala, Uganda
Panel discussion
Oakland Pride performance with Alphabet Rockers
Maddy poses in West Oakland. Photo by Been Milky.
