Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is a multimedia artist, activist, prison reform advocate and speaker and grew up in Philadelphia. As a child, Baxter recalls stealing food stamps from her cousin and cutting them into pieces for use in a collage. She was raised by her mother, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. By age 12, Baxter was a ward of the state, Baxter endured 43 hours of labor ending in an emergency C-section, during which she was shackled to her bed the entire time.

Baxter earned an associate degrees in art and design

In 2021, Baxter worked as an office manager for Mural Arts Philadelphia, which is based in the Thomas Eakins House. Baxter superimposes images of herself over the girl in the original photo, creating a new image where the victim is protected. Baxter herself has been critical of Eakins, writing an op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer "decrying the city's veneration of Eakins".

In 2023, Baxter was featured in a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, titled ""Ain't I a Woman" and released a song with the same name, a reference to the poem Ain't I a Woman? by abolitionist Sojourner Truth. The museum exhibit presented two works, a short film and a multi-part photographic piece. Baxter drew upon her own experiences of being shackled during childbirth to "underscore the through-lines between mass incarceration and slavery".

Baxter served as an executive producer and co-starred with Faith Ringgold in the documentary "Paint Me a Road Out of Here", which premiered at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on June 14, 2024.

Baxter is a co-founder of the Dignity Act Now Collective.

Personal On February 2, 2024, Baxter received an executive pardon from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Martos Gallery (New York), MoMA PS1, National Museum of World Cultures, 2022: Artist2Artist Fellowship, Art Matters Foundation, New York 2022: Corrina Mehiel Fellow, S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio 2022: Pratt Forward fellow