Thylias Moss (born February 27, 1954, in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

) is an American poet, writer,

experimental filmmaker Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that does not apply standard cinematic conventions, instead adopting Non-narrative film, non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many e ...

sound artist Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary time-based medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, ...

and playwright of

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

, Native American, and

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

heritage. Her poetry has been published in a number of collections and anthologies, and she has also published essays, children's books, and plays. She is the pioneer of Limited Fork Theory, a literary theory concerned with the limitations and capacity of human understanding of art.

Youth

Moss was born Thylias Rebecca Brasier, in a working-class family in Ohio. Her father chose the name Thylias because he decided she needed a name that had not existed before. According to Moss, her first few years of life were happy, living with her family in the upstairs rooms of an older Jewish couple named Feldman (who Moss believes were

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivors). The Feldmans treated Moss like a grandchild. When Moss was five, the Feldmans sold their house and moved away. Her parents continued to live in the house with the new homeowners and their 13-year-old daughter, Lytta, who began to baby-sit Moss after school. Moss experienced constant harassment from Lytta and several traumatic events before the age of nine.Silberman, Eve
"Thylias Moss: A Poet of Many Voices and A Spellbinding Delivery"
''Michigan Today'', October 1995, via Modern American Poetry. She later said about her trauma: "I never said a word of this to anybody....I was there witnessing things that only happened when I left that house." At age nine her family relocated, causing her to be sent to school in a predominantly

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

district. After enduring bullying and racism from both her peers and teachers, she withdrew from social interaction at school and did not speak freely in classes until many years later in college. It was during this time she gave more attention to writing poetry, an activity she had begun two years earlier.

Adult years

Moss married at age 16 before attending

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

from 1971 to 1973. She eventually left university due to racial tensions and entered the workforce for several years. During this time she had two sons, Dennis and Ansted. She enrolled in

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

in 1979 and graduated with a BA in 1981. She later received a Master of Arts in English, with an emphasis on writing, from the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

. After finishing school, Moss taught English at

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

in Andover, Massachusetts. Since 1993, she has been a Professor of English and a Professor of Art and Design at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her early work is considered part of the legacy of the

Black Arts Movement The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African Americans, African-American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The mov ...

, taking influence from West African praise poetry and concerning themes of racial justice. Throughout her career, her work has become more experimental, stretching the boundaries of genre and the definition of poetry. Her fixations still include justice, but she expanded into a fascination with text placement's effect on meaning. These experiments with form culminated in her development of Limited Fork Theory and the invention of the POAM (product of act of making). Moss's POAMs are combinations of film and poetry, emphasizing how text placement and movement, among other sensory elements, can enhance the meaning of a poem.

Limited Fork Theory

Moss contributed to experimental literary theory by introducing the metaphor of a fork to conceptualize how people internalize art and literature. The fork as a metaphor for understanding represents bifurcation, and Moss argues that the branching out of the mind to understand art mimics the branching tines of a fork. She uses the word "limited" to express that, though an observer gains understanding of art through these bifurcated systems of comprehension, the same systems limit their understanding. Just as one can only eat that which adheres to the tines of a fork, one can only internalize the facets of a piece of art that adhere to these bifurcated tines of understanding. The development of Moss's POAMs (products of acts of making) coincided with her theoretical development of Limited Fork. These multimedia pieces use as many sensory elements as possible, including movement, color, and sound. Moss has also expressed interest in incorporating olfactory elements in future projects. These POAMS are usually displayed in galleries, but many can be found online i
podcasts
journals, and o
YouTube.
The complexities associated with the

epistemological Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowled ...

application of Limited Fork Theory caused Moss to adopt the persona of Forker Girl/Forker Gryle, pseudonyms under which she run
blogs
and a
Instagram account
explaining details of both her life and her theory.

Work and awards

Poetry * ''Wannabe Hoochie Mama Gallery of Realities' Red Dress Code: New & Selected Poems'' (Persea Books, 2016) * ''Tokyo Butter: Poems'' (Persea Books, 2006) * ''Slave Moth: A Narrative in Verse'' (Persea Books, 2004) * ''Last Chance for the Tarzan Holler'' (1998) * ''Small Congregations: New and Selected Poems'' (1993) * ''Rainbow Remnants in Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky'' (1991) * ''At Redbones'' (1990) * ''Pyramid of Bone'' (1989) * ''Hosiery Seams on a Bowlegged Woman'' (1983). Prose * ''New Kiss Horizon'' (2017), a romance * '' Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress'' (1998), a memoir * ''Talking to Myself'' (1984), a play * ''The Dolls in the Basement'' (1984), a play * '' I Want To Be'' (Dial Books for Young Readers, 1995) Awards *

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

(1996) *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

(1995) *Dewar's Profiles Performance Award (1991) *

Whiting Award The Whiting Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, ...

(1991) *

Witter Bynner Poetry Prize The Witter Bynner Poetry Prize was established by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980 to support the work of a young poet. It is named for poet Witter Bynner. The prize was discontinued in 2003. It is not to be confuse ...

(1991) * Artist's Fellowship from the Massachusetts Arts Council (1987) * NEA grant

References

External links

A collection of Moss's video poams

"Shadows, Boxes, Forks, and POAMs"
an interview on the Poetry Foundation website.
Profile
at The Whiting Foundation.

published in Frigg.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120925044603/https://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/people/profile.asp?ID=266 University of Michigan Department of English {{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Thylias 1954 births Living people MacArthur Fellows University of Michigan faculty Oberlin College alumni African-American poets 20th-century American poets American women poets Native American writers Poets from Ohio 21st-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American women academics 21st-century American women writers 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers Women sound artists