Honoring Indigenous ways of Being & Knowing: Five Akwasasne Mohawk Artist-in-Residence. Presented with funding from the SLU’s Arts Collaborative.
Two-Spirit mixed-media artist and drag king performer Kit Thomas (Akwesasne) presents a personal and educational talk exploring Indigenous gender identity, community resilience, and the role of art in storytelling. Drawing from lived experience and cultural history, Kit discusses what it means to be Two-Spirit today and how everyday community practices — including local radio bingo in Akwesasne — become powerful symbols of connection in their artwork.
Kit Thomas (they/she) is a mixed-media painter whose practice began in 2007. They studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and spent years traveling, exhibiting, and living in Los Angeles before returning home to Akwesasne in 2022, a return that reawakened their commitment to community, healing, and cultural connection. Recently appointed as a Council Member to the Chiefs of Ontario (COO) through the Fire Keepers of the Circle, Thomas creates work rooted in memory, ancestry, and spiritual presence. Using bold color and unconventional surfaces such as bingo cards, they weave stories of resilience, identity, and belonging. Through their art and community work, Thomas offers a space of reflection, affirmation, and gentle invitation for all who enter.
Free and open to the public.
Cover image: Kit Thomas, Resilience in the Dabs, 2023, mixed media with Bingo cards, collection of Dr. Suzanne Smith, President, SUNY Potsdam