Kalup Linzy

Kalup Linzy
Born	Clermont, Florida
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of South Florida

Kalup Linzy (born July 23, 1977) is an American video and performance artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His performance are characterized by their low-tech quality, themes of community, socializing, family, the church, sexuality and homosexuality.

Linzy was born in Clermont, Florida, to the late Samuel Avant, Sr., who was a farmer, and Constance Linzy, who struggled with schizophrenia and later drug addiction. Linzy was raised in Stuckey, Florida, in a close-knit rural community by his late grandmother Georgianna Linzy, a seamstress, who was also deaf, and also by his aunt Diane McMullen, an evangelist and domestic worker, and his uncle Isaiah McMullen, who was a minister, and is retired from the railroad. Linzy spent weekends and summers with his father, who lived a few miles away in Center Hill, Florida. He has a sister, Athia Linzy-Isom, who was born to the same parentage and five half-brothers and a step-sister by his father. Kalup also considers his aunt and uncle’s six children to be his siblings.

While he was growing up, his mother was in and out of mental facilities and his father became paralyzed after suffering a stroke. This affected Linzy emotionally. He also secretly struggled with his sexuality and only revealed it to close relatives and friends who asked.

Linzy attended South Lake High School in Groveland, Florida, where he ran track and was involved in many student organizations including the Student Government, where he served as President his senior year, Future Homemakers of America, where he served as a state officer, and Future Business Leaders of America. Linzy’s performance and creative skills were nurtured in chorus, theatre, and the church choir. His relatives taught him how to play the piano by ear. In his senior year, Linzy was named a Walt Disney Dreamer and Doer, a special recognition for Central Florida students where he represented his county. In 1995, following High School, he enrolled at the University of South Florida where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2000. As an undergraduate, he pursued his degree in the arts and started a community festival with one of his childhood friends. He then followed that with a MFA from the same school University of South Florida in 2003.

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