Orcs of New York, set up by actor and artist Harry Aspinwall, the project has a stated aim of “Giving a face to the Mordor diaspora in New York, one orc at a time.” Talking about his project in greater depth, Aspinwall said:
This project has been a labour of love, and it means the world to me that so many people have taken an interest and want to help raise awareness about a people so often maligned and misunderstood. For many years I’ve felt that orcish culture has a beauty that goes unappreciated and underrepresented in the mainstream media, even while orcish people make up an ever growing proportion of our city. It’s time they stood in the spotlight.
“I grew up in a traditional household. I took weekly lessons in Black Speech, and my parents wanted me to get an engineering degree. I ended up with a BA in psych and visual art. They were pretty good about it.”
Humans of New York has done so much for helping nurture understanding between different humans all over the world at this point. Having “humans” in the name made me want to take it one step further and bridge the gap to other anthropoid species. After all, we all have to get along. [..] Under the superficial differences – the skin colour, the accents and language, the bones, ritual scarification and war paint – we’re all pretty much the same, living, feeling creatures.
Shaun is the Chair of The Tolkien Society. First elected in 2013, Shaun has overseen the Society's expansion from 600 to 3,500 members. Shaun regularly speaks about adaptations of Tolkien's works and the future of Tolkien scholarship whilst passionately believing the Society needs to reach out to new audiences. In his spare time he can be found playing video games and Lego, or on Twitter. He chaired another charity, Mankind, and is a local councillor.
