Thrilled to be part of the new issue of Callaloo, the Journal of African Diaspora Arts & Letters that focuses on Black Appalachia and features my thesis, Elegance Is Refusal. Thank you for including me!
Elegance Is Refusal: Journey to The Clearing.
Elegance Is Refusal is a story about Black queer Appalachian liberation via the story of Beloved by Toni Morrison. It’s a dream I had to go home and play dress up and run through the fields in petticoats. A love letter to my younger self.
Elegance, to me a feminine of ‘cool,’ long associated with Black culture, considers Black queer and femme identity as a source of power and freedom. Elegance Is Refusal comes from the editor Diana Vreeland, who says, “Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.” The project employs theatrical costuming to set the stage of a Reconstruction-era Appalachian Ohio landscape. Working with Xavier Cruz, cast to play my younger self, I engage race, gender, sexuality, history, class, and the promise of liberty via queer mothering. This work is made near land my family has occupied in Ohio since being emancipated in the early 19th century.
Reclaiming history and identity in my art practice feel essential for liberation. This is an offering to the invisible Black, queer and Appalachian people who were ghosts so I could be in the wild.
Thank you to Xavier Cruz, for your endless inspiration. You are a gift. The best daughter one could ask for. Also, big thanks to Iyana Hill, Andres Mira, and Ky Smiley for showing up in such a major way to help me make this project happen in the August heat in the hollow. ❤️
🌟We are thrilled to announce Columbus-based artist Marcus Morris as our Fall Fellow at The Annex, marking an exciting moment in The Gund’s ongoing commitment to supporting artists at various stages of their careers and fostering new ways of engaging with our community. 📸
Through his project, “Marian Anderson: Contralto Immortal,” Marcus proposes a profound mode of interaction, connecting the history of Black performance in Knox County with contemporary art practice. This fellowship is made possible through the support of the Mount Vernon Arts Consortium (@mountvernonartsconsortium ) and their stewardship of the historic Knox Memorial Theater.
Marian Anderson, the world-renowned contralto, became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement after being denied the opportunity to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson delivered an iconic concert at the Lincoln Memorial in April 1939, performing before 75,000 people. Just one month later, Anderson returned to Knox County, Ohio, for a performance at the Knox Memorial Theater, a venue where she had also appeared in 1930 at the invitation of the Booker T. Washington Club.
Marcus Morris’s installation is a “ghost performance” of her 1939 concert, an homage to both the essence of Anderson’s presence and the rich history of Blackness in Mount Vernon. It is also a tribute to the centrality of theater in Knox County, highlighting its role as a space that holds and reflects cultural and historical narratives across generations. As Morris explains, “A ghost is a trace or an essence of a life.” Inspired by Kenyon Professor Emeritus Ric Sheffield’s words about Marian Anderson’s Ohio performances, Morris explores her legacy through image and song, keeping conversations about our complex histories alive.
There will be an opportunity for the community to witness this installation’s performance on Wednesday, October 30, from 4 - 6 p.m.
#TheGund #TheAnnex #FallFellow #ArtistFellowship #KenyonCollege #MarianAnderson
Special thanks to the Mellon Foundation (@mellonfoundation ) and the Ariel Foundation for their generous support in making The Annex possible.
Essex Hemphill Angel #1, 2025.
Image description: An angel from The Tomb Of Sorrow by Essex Hemphill. “When I die, my angels, immaculate Black diva drag queens, all of them sequined and seductive, some of them will come back to haunt you, I promise, honey chil’.”
Dark Darker #2, 2022. Still from performance as Tina Turner as light. Chasing liberation. Inspired by Barbara Chase-Riboud.
Image description: Still from performance as light covered in metallic material.
Elegance Is Refusal: Beloved(William Dorsey Swann, Derek Jarman, Toni Morrison). 2022. Cyanotype. 36”x 55”
Image description: Introduction of Xavier as my younger self as Beloved. In homage to Morrison, Swann and Jarman on a large cyanotype created on cotton sateen.
Install photo: Natasha Woods
Elegance Is Refusal, 2022. Gotta Move. Ink on paper.
Image description: Xavier as me. The beginnings of movement. Movement as a device for liberation. Black and queer and free.
Elegance Is Refusal, 2022. Still from performance in leather.
Image description: Xavier wearing my leather jacket with a half-eaten banana during a performance as me.
