Kalyn Fay (Cherokee Nation, Muscogee descent, b. 1990) is a songwriter and musician from Oklahoma, who fosters an additional interdisciplinary practice that interweaves visual arts, curation, and education. Born and raised in rural Oklahoma between Cherokee, Muscogee, and Osage territories, they are deeply rooted in their nuanced relationship to Oklahoma, and their musical practice is a reflection of that influence. Focusing on self-location, community, collaboration, and empathy, Kalyn sees the songs as a way to lean into personal and shared narratives, to share Indigenous understandings associated with community and environment, and to find the ways in which we all intersect with the hopes of building bridges of understanding between.

Kalyn Fay currently resides in Tulsa, OK. Kalyn has been an NACF LIFT Fellow, a First Peoples Fund Artist-in-Business Leadership Fellow, and is currently the Assistant Curator of Native Art at Philbrook Museum of Art, overseeing Indigenous collections from North American and across the world. Fay has been featured on the fully Cherokee-language compilation record, “Anvdanelesgi (Performers),” which includes twelve multi-genre Cherokee Nation musicians and has released two full-length albums, Bible Belt (2016) and Good Company (2019), with their third record, “ᎠᏫᏒᏅ (Garden),” slated to release in fall of 2023. Fay has performed at nationally and internationally acclaimed festivals, such as SXSW, Kerrville Folk Festival, Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, Folk Alliance International, Live in America, Fresh Grass Festival, FORMAT Festival, and the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival.

Kalyn Fay holds an M.F.A. from University of Arkansas (2021), an M.A. from The University of Tulsa (2016), and a B.F.A. from Rogers State University (2012). Kalyn Fay has worked with Peabody Essex Museum, Philbrook Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, The Momentary, Eiteljorg Museum, The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, amongst other national institutions, for performances, workshops, and creative partnerships.