Lorin Morgan Richards

Early years

Richards was raised in an old converted school house in Beebetown, Ohio. His mother (a student of fine art) taught him the basics of drawing and music composition on the family pump organ. Richards also credited his imagination on the plentiful books his family owned, creative isolation, and the sheer number of animals they took care of, many of which he incorporated into his early drawings and writings.

Richards interest in Native American and American Western history began in childhood. “I remember my first book as a child was The Indians Knew by Tillie S. Pine, an early reader from 1965 explaining the cultural ways and historical resourcefulness of Native Americans and how they are applied in the sciences today.”

When Richards entered second grade he was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia that required tutoring through the ninth grade. By his early teens, he was reading and became inspired by Edward Lear, L. Frank Baum, Roald Dahl, and Lewis Carroll; helping him overcome his reading disability.

Richards great ancestor was the 19th century Welsh-American poet Robert Dennison Morgan. Robert's father (Richards direct ancestor) John Morgan left the Tredegar area of Wales and emigrated to southern Ohio in the early part of the 1800s.

Theater

Between 1993-2003, Richards achieved minor success in producing music projects containing modern dance and theater. During this time he befriended and collaborated with artist Textbeak. In 1999, Richards solo album ENKI and subsequent live production was based on Zecharia Sitchin's book The Twelfth Planet. The show premiered in Cleveland, Ohio under the choreography of Michael Medcalf. Native American musical act Shouting Mountain opened the evening. In 2001, Richards followed the success of ENKI with the production of An Occurrence Remembered, influenced by the metaphysical war writings of Ambrose Bierce. The performance premiered in New York City. Richards reflects on the performance: "Rehearsals were underway when 9-11 happened and I recall we continued only for our own therapy of the situation, knowing theater-goers were not going out. It was a tremendous performance, but it financially broke me."

Writing career

In 2002, Richards moved to Los Angeles to start over where he refocused his artistic direction into writing and illustrating, which he said "did not need the expenses of my past but only a pen and paper." While his novel Me’ma and the Great Mountain (2012) began drafts as early as 2002, it was Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories that became his first book release in 2009.

The following year he delivered four new releases including a second book of short stories in A Boy Born from Mold and Other Delectable Morsels.

Richards conceptualized most of The Goodbye Family characters in 2009 during a trip to the UK and France with his wife, although they were mentioned before this in his western novel Me’ma and the Great Mountain. Richards explains "I took a diary on the trip in order to write my second novel The Goodbye Family. The Goodbye family consisted of undertakers Otis and Pyridine, their daughter Orphie and her pet tarantula Dorian. Orphie was first seen atop the Notre Dame Cathedral with gargoyles, Otis was trying to board a train at customs with a shrunken head, Pyridine was sewing a limb back together in Cardiff, and Dorian was capturing a fairy to eat. Following these illustrations, a cat Ouiji was unveiled and Orphie is said to have a brother named Kepla, but he is hardly ever seen and it is unclear if he even exists."

Between 2009 and 2013, Richards was bookbinding his own limited edition versions of each title with runs equaling 50 to 400. These collectible books were typically oversewn by hand with a faux leather hard backing and linen pages inside. In an interview he states:

"Having seen what is being printed by majors these days with poor quality paper, I wanted to provide the reader with a book that carries more value near the same price and that can last for generations. Nothing would be more inspiring to me than to know my books are treasured like an heirloom."

Stylistically, Richards prefers a pencil and ink approach to his illustrations and his writing often has elements of dark satire.

In 2015 Richards began two weekly cartoons on Steamkat.com, a comic strip site, The Goodbye Family and The Noodle Rut. Richards won the 2016 Official Tasty Nugget award for his illustrated story Sad Lost Doll.

A Raven Above Press

A Raven Above Press was founded in 2009 by Richards with a focus on printing his illustrated stories and promoting other authors and illustrators of Celtic and Native American origin. The press also became a catalyst for producing cultural events and art exhibits. Notably, the Los Angeles St. David's Day Festival. On August 1, 2013, Celtic Family Magazine hit the newsstands with a release party in Cardiff, Wales. Richards was the founder and publisher of Celtic Family Magazine from its inception in 2013 to its hiatus in 2017.

The logo for A Raven Above Press displays a raven atop a bending cypress tree. Model Wednesday Mourning has appeared in the main ad for A Raven Above Press, as well as Morgan-Richards daughter Berlin in her Welsh traditional dress.

Richards would produce a book for every Welsh event he curated through A Raven Above Press. Outside of including his own illustration, these books often had American and Welsh artists depict the subject matter. Notable artists involved were Jen Delyth, Ruth Jên, Siobhan Owen, Monica Richards, Nichola and Sarah Hope, and Nathan Wyburn to name a few. The following is a list of these books:

Native American Involvement

Richards speaking on the history books he read in grade school: "Usually the pictures told much more about American history than the text. I remembered seeing at a very early age a glowing photo of Custer and a few pages after (of) an elderly man, who looked like my own grandfather, lying dead in the snow. He was alone, and without care. I later found out his name was Miniconjou chief Spotted Elk (Bigfoot) and he was part of the massacre at Wounded Knee. That photo has always stuck with me. I knew something was not right, and the text which was alongside it was not giving the full story."

Richards received a BA in Anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles, where he focused on cultural studies (specifically Indigenous peoples of the Americas). To help pay for school, Richards worked at an art gallery in Westwood and later at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian store where he assisted setting up gallery shows including works by Russell Means. On February 11, 2008, Richards met Dennis Banks and was in support of The Longest Walk 2 starting on Alcatraz Island. Around this time, Richards attended a conference in Cleveland, Ohio on Native mascots hosted by brothers Vernon Bellecourt and Clyde Bellecourt, and also credits hearing John Trudell speak at his university as influential to his life.

Richards volunteered at Haramokngna American Indian Cultural Center in the Angeles National Forest, where he researched and wrote about the Indigenous plants and their uses amongst the local tribes of Southern California. Botanist author Frank Acuna and Tataviam tribal leader Rudy Ortega Sr. were key in this process and its use by the center for a trail guide.

Bringing the Circle Together

Between 2008 and 2012, Richards partnered with Native American and Indigenous groups in Los Angeles to establish Bringing the Circle Together, a free monthly film series hosted at the Japanese American National Museum. The series offered a central gathering place to screen documentaries by and about Indigenous people while providing historical narratives with guest speakers, and art and cultural demonstrations. Special guests included Makana, Saginaw Grant, Douglas Miles, Blase Bonpane, among others.

The film series in partnership with AIM Santa Barbara held a community birthday celebration at Nahui Ohlin in Los Angeles for Leonard Peltier on September 12, 2009 with an update on his status and how the public could get involved to petition his release. Richards spoke to a reporter: "This is all grassroots. Everyone's voice counts. The time is now because Barack Obama, our president, had said it's not the president that actually makes the change, it's going to be our pressure upon the president that will make the change." The event was followed in December by a screening of Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier with discussion afterwards by Ben Carnes, members of AIM Santa Barbara, as well as friends and family.

History was made at the film series on February 25, 2010 at the screening of Lost Nation: The Ioway when representatives of the Southern Ioway and Northern Ioway tribes gathered with Tongva leaders, making it the first time a meeting took place between Southern California and Midwestern Native American Nations.

In 2015, Richards published a free journal entitled Bringing the Circle Together Magazine featuring interviews with contemporary Native American leaders Joanne Shenandoah, Greg Grey Cloud, and L. Frank.

Celtic Involvement

Richards became heavily involved in the Welsh-American community after the untimely closure of the Welsh Presbyterian Church in December 2012. Prior to this, Richards had helped coordinate an Eisteddfod at Barnsdall Art Park in 2011. Feeling a need to fill the void of losing the church as a cultural center, Richards founded the Los Angeles St. David's Day Festival, an annual event taking place on or around March 1 celebrating Wales. The first festival took place on March 1, 2013. Singer and harpist Siobhan Owen headlined the large scale event. In conjunction with the festival, Richards began producing Celtic Family Magazine, a nationally distributed print and digital publication on Celtic interests.

In the summer of 2015, Richards invited members of the community to form the Welsh League of Southern California which took on the responsibility of the festival and other events in the area. Celtic Family Magazine announced its hiatus in 2017 due to increased production costs.

Richards has since refocused his energy into writing and illustrating full-time.