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Tracie Morris is an American poet. She is also a performance artist, vocalist, voice consultant, creative non-fiction writer, critic, scholar, bandleader, actor and non-profit consultant. Morris is from
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. Morris's experimental sound poetry is progressive and improvisational. She is a tenured
professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
at the
Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...
.


Education

Born in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, New York, Tracie Morris earned a
Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...
(MFA) degree in
Poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
at
Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...
and her
Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in Performance Studies at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
with an emphasis on speech act theory, poetry and Black aesthetics, under the supervision of
José Esteban Muñoz José Esteban Muñoz (August 9, 1967 – December 3, 2013) was a Cuban American academic in the fields of performance studies, visual culture, queer theory, cultural studies, and critical theory. His first book, ''Disidentifications: Queers of ...
. She also studied classical British acting at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and American acting at
Michael Howard Studios The Michael Howard Studios is an acting studio for the performing arts located in at 152 West 25th Street in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City; the studio was founded in 1953 by actor/director Michael Howard. History A protégé of both Sanford M ...
.


Career

Primarily known for her live performances, Morris has written ten books (as of 2021) and has been heavily anthologized as a writer in multiple genres. She emerged as a poet, performer and writer from the
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...
poetry scene in the early 1990s. She became known as a local poet in the "slam" scene of the
Nuyorican Poets Cafe Nuyorican is a portmanteau word blending "New York" (or "Nueva York" in Spanish) and "Puerto Rican," referring to Puerto Rican migration to New York City, Puerto Ricans located in or around New York City, their culture, or their descendants (es ...
in
New York City, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...
, and eventually made the 1993 Nuyorican Poetry Slam team, the same year she won the Nuyorican Grand Slam Championship. She competed in the 1993
National Poetry Slam The National Poetry Slam (NPS) was a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and, occasionally, Europe and Australia, participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurred in early August every y ...
held that year in San Francisco with other poets from the Nuyorican team.Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe. (2008). ''Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam.''
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
: Soft Skull Press. "Chapter 14: First and Always; Graduates from the NYC Poetry Slam's First Wave";
Morris also won the "national haiku slam" that year and her interest in the form lead her to Asia to research poetic forms and cultures from the region in 1998. She has been a member of the MLA (
Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "str ...
),
Associated Writing Programs The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is a nonprofit literary organization that provides support, advocacy, resources, and community to nearly 50,000 writers, 500 college and university creative writing programs, and 125 writers' c ...
, The Shakespeare Society and The Shakespeare Forum. She has performed at
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
,
St. Mark's Poetry Project The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan by, among others, the poet and translator Paul Blackburn. It has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetry ...
,
CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village, Manhattan, East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Cou ...
, the
92nd Street Y 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a cultural and community center located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the corner of East 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Founded in 1874 as the You ...
,
Lollapalooza Lollapalooza () is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991, with Chicago becoming its permanent location beginning in 2005. Music genres i ...
,
South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...
,
The Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
,
MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Albertine
The New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...
,
Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
(Paris), Centre for Creative Arts(Durban),
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
, Queensland Poetry Festival (
Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
,
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
) and many other regional, national, and international venues. Morris's work is embraced by slam and performance poets, as well as the Language Poets, a contemporary poetic avant-garde. She is featured, for example, on
Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein may refer to: * Charles Bernstein (composer) (born 1943), American composer of film and television scores * Charles Bernstein (poet) (born 1950), American poet, essayist, editor, and literary scholar {{hndis, Bernstein, Cha ...
's ''Close Listening'' radio program, "PennSound"."PennSound"
upenn.edu. Accessed March 4, 2024.
and was featured at a 2008 conference on Conceptual Poetics alongside Bernstein,
Marjorie Perloff Marjorie Perloff (born Gabriele Mintz; September 28, 1931 – March 24, 2024) was an Austrian-born American poetry scholar and critic, known for her study of avant-garde poetry. Perloff was a professor at Catholic University, the University of ...
, Craig Dworkin and others. She received the
Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...
Performing Arts award in the year 2000. In addition to being an experimental poet, Morris writes poetry in conventional an
nonce
forms. Morris is known as a
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 specialist in
sound poetry Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words". By definition, sound poe ...
, as well as an occasional theatrical performer. She was an early collaborator with
Ralph Lemon Ralph Lemon (born August 1, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American choreographer, company director, writer, visual artist and a conceptualist. Raised in a religious environment, he developed his artistic creativity as a child.Diana Stockon, � ...
for his Geography Trilogy. Her work was featured in the 2002
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...
.2002 Whitney Biennial List of Artists
Morris has taught in several institutions of higher education. She is th
first tenured African-American poet
of the
Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...
after serving as the program's inaugural distinguished visiting professor of poetry.


Creative and academic fellowships

Morris was the 2007–08 Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing Fellow at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
, was a 2018 Master Artist of the
Atlantic Center for the Arts Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists' community and education facility located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The complex was designed by the Boston-based firm Thompson and Rose Architects. Atlantic Center ...
and the 2018–1
Woodberry Poetry Room Fellow at Harvard University
In 2021, Morris received a
John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated dis ...
for Poetry.


Consultant, workshop leader, panelist

Morris leads workshops on creative writing, voice and planning consultations for activists, artists, youth, women, postgraduate students and underserved communities as well as private and non-profit groups. She has served on board of trustees/board of directors, committees and artist advisory boards for: the
New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...
,
New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) serves to foster and advance the arts, culture, and creativity throughout New York State, according to its website. The goal of the council is to allow all New Yorkers to benefit from the contribution ...
, African Voices, the
Black Rock Coalition The Black Rock Coalition is a New York-based artists' collective and nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the creative freedom and works of black musicians. Founding and purpose The BRC was founded in 1985 in New York City by Vernon Re ...
and other national and grassroots institutions. She is also a workshop leader for innovative poetry, conducting intensives for
St. Mark's Poetry Project The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church was founded in 1966 at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery in the East Village of Manhattan by, among others, the poet and translator Paul Blackburn. It has been a crucial venue for new and experimental poetry ...
,
Atlantic Center for the Arts Atlantic Center for the Arts (ACA) is a nonprofit, interdisciplinary artists' community and education facility located in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The complex was designed by the Boston-based firm Thompson and Rose Architects. Atlantic Center ...
, Poets' House,
Naropa University Naropa University is a private university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, it is named after the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda. The university ...
,
Kore Press Kore Press is an American nonprofit literary press founded in 1993 and located in Tucson, Arizona. The press publishes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by women, transgender or gender non-conforming women. Kore Press's output includes boo ...
, and other national arts organizations.Profile
allenginsberg.org. April 2018.


Featured recordings

With Elliott Sharp *''Terraplane: Forgery'' *''Terraplane: Secret Life'' *''Radio-Hyper-Yahoo'' *''Terraplane: Sky Road Songs'' *''4AM Always'' With
Uri Caine Uri Caine (born June 8, 1956) is an American classical music, classical and jazz pianist and composer from Philadelphia. Biography Early years Caine was born on June 8, 1956, in Philadelphia, to Burton Caine (1928–2023), a professor at Temple ...
*'' The Goldberg Variations'' (Winter & Winter, 2000)


Books

*
Chap-T-Her Won
', 1993, TM Ink
''Intermission'', 1998, Soft Skull Press
*
Rhyme Scheme", 2012, Zasterle Press

Handholding: 5 kinds, 2016, Kore Press

Best American Experimental Writing 2016
(a.k.a. BAX 2016) co-edited with
Charles Bernstein Charles Bernstein may refer to: * Charles Bernstein (composer) (born 1943), American composer of film and television scores * Charles Bernstein (poet) (born 1950), American poet, essayist, editor, and literary scholar {{hndis, Bernstein, Cha ...
, Seth Abramson, Jesse Damiani,
Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...
, 2017
Per Form/Hard Kore: joca seria press 2017
(English with French translation by Olivier Brosard, Vincent Broqua, Abigail Lang)
Who Do With Words: Chax Press 2018


Poetry


401 Requiem

Boating Duozetuor

Slave Sho' to Video Aka Black but Beautiful

The Mrs. Gets Her Ass Kicked

Project Princess

Leonine Viewing


Notes


References

*''The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies'' by Tessa Kale *''Right to Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race'' by Maureen Mahon *''The Stamp of Class: Reflections on Poetry and Social Class'' by Gary Lenhart *''Uptown Conversation: The New Jazz Studies'' by Robert O'Meally,
Brent Hayes Edwards Brent Hayes Edwards is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. Early life Edwards attended Yale University as an undergraduate, then completed an MA and PhD at Columbia. Career Teaching Edwards has taught at Ru ...
, and
Farah Jasmine Griffin Farah Jasmine Griffin (born 1963) is an American academic and professor specializing in African-American literature. She is William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies, chair of the African Am ...
*''Living in Spanglish: The Search for Latino Identity in America'' by Ed Morales, St. Martin's Press: 2003 *''Production Notebooks Volume 2'' by Mark Bly *''Geography: Art/race/exile'' by Ralph Lemon and Ann Daly *''Listen Up!'' by Zoe Anglesey *''Girls Guide to Taking Over the World: Writings From The Girl Zine Revolution'' by Tristan Taormino, Karen Green, and Ann Magnuson *''Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry'' by Gary Mex Glazner *''We Who Love to Be Astonished: Experimental Women’s Writing and Performance Poetics.'' edited by Laura Hinton and Cynthia Hogue. *''The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to Spoken Word'' by Meta DuEwa Jones University of Illinois Press, 2011 *''Choice Voice Noise: Soundings in Innovative African American Poetry'' by Kathleen Crown in "Assembling Alternatives: Reading Postmodern Poetries Transnationally" edited by Romana Huk, Wesleyan University Press, 2003 *Ranft, Erin (January 2014). "The Afrofuturist Poetry of Tracie Morris and Tracy K. Smith". Journal of Ethnic American Literature


External links

*
Personal website








''The New York Times'', December 18, 1999. * ttps://read.dukeupress.edu/boundary-2/article-abstract/36/3/49/6389/Rakim-s-Performativity?redirectedFrom=fulltext Rakim's Performativity
Speaking for Myself
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Tracie Living people 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American writers African-American poets African-American women writers American sound artists American women poets Hunter College alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty New York University alumni Poets from New York (state) Women sound artists Writers from Brooklyn Year of birth missing (living people)