A Bit About Me…
I am a curator, writer, and cultural historian. Born in Iowa, I have since lived in Missouri, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, where I am currently based. The scope of my work is not defined by geographies, dates, or siloed academic disciplines. I am an interdisciplinary scholar most interested in creating public facing and accessible scholarship on identity, material culture, and the built environment. Put simply, I am fascinated by the question, “how do our various understandings of who we are, shape our world,” and in turn, “how does our world shape our various understandings of who we are?” My scholarship materializes in various exhibitions, publications, syllabi, public lectures, and Instagram posts, where I show pictures of my plants and seek to reveal the potential for art and culture to transform our lives.
My curatorial practice is best expressed in THIS INTERVIEW with Grace Busser for Art UnPhiltered, a series of interviews produced by members of the ICA Philadelphia’s Student Board. My recent curatorial projects include Hand to Mouth at Stove Works (2024), Kelly Taylor Mitchell & Sergio Suárez: Material Memory at Swan Coach House Gallery (2024), Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams at the Woodmere Museum of Art (2021), Virtual Remains at the Atlanta Contemporary in conjunction with the Atlanta Biennial (2021), and Zipporah Camille Thompson: Looming Chaos at the Zuckerman Museum of Art (2020). From 2022-2024, I served as Assistant Curator: Art of the African Diaspora at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In that position, I served as managing curator for Mickalene Thomas: All About Love (2024), William Edmondson: A Monumental Vision (2023), and Sue Williamson & Lebohang Kganye: Tell Me What You Remember (2023). Most recently, I completed a curatorial residency at Yinka Shonibare’s G.A.S. Residency in Lagos, Nigeria (2023). The residency culminated in a CURATOR’S LUNCH that I hosted in partnership with the foundation for local curators, art historians, culture workers and artists.
My writing and editing undergirds my every facet of my work. I am currently editing the forthcoming monograph for Lawton-based painter Robert Peterson for the Wichita Museum of Art. Previously, I edited and contributed to the exhibition catalogues for Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams and Zipporah Camille Thompson: Looming Chaos. In 2020 I co-edited the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of ART PAPERS: Monumental Interventions with Sarah L. Higgins. My writing has been published in several exhibition catalogues, academic journals, and periodicals. I have contributed to Art in America, the Brooklyn Rail, and ART PAPERS, where I am a contributing editor. In 2021, I was invited to be the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Vashon Artist Residency. In 2022, I was the recipient of an Andy Warhol Writers Grant for short form writing. Most recently, I was invited to serve as Monument Lab’s 2022-2023 writer-in-residence where I produced a suite of articles ranging from experimental performance art by Haudenosaunee artist AIYYANA MARACLE to the ancient hunger stones of central Europe.
As a public scholar, I have led museum workshops and have lectured for several institutions. From 2021 to 2024, I was a VISITING LECTURER at Cornell University, where I taught courses on cultural criticism for the Architecture Art Planning Program. I am currently a DOCTORAL CANDIDATE in the History of American Civilization program at the University of Delaware. My dissertation project is an interdisciplinary analysis of the history, materiality, and symbolism of a Confederate Memorial in St. Louis, MO. I received my Master of Arts in American Studies and my Bachelor of Arts in English and African American Studies, with a certificate in Creative Writing, from Saint Louis University.