Case Study
Tracie Morris: The East New York Project
By Aaron Landsman, December, 2002

"I'm almost a different person than I was when I started working with Creative Capital," says performance poet Tracie Morris. "I've taken quantum leaps forward in so many ways." A recipient of one of the first round grants awarded in 1999-2000, Tracie has taken advantage of every aspect of Creative Capital's programmatic offerings, from additional financial support to consultations with staff and professionals in the field to long-lasting working relationships with other grantees.

Tracie was first awarded $7,000 for her site-specific work The East New York Project, which will be performed outdoors in her childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn and later at a traditional theater space. Tracie describes the work as Üan experimental urban landscape" that includes her own spoken poetry, the work of director/filmmaker Demetria Royales, music by composer Mark Batson, and movement by choreographer David Thompson. Thematically, the piece is both an engagement with a specific community and a metaphor for a broader historical moment. ÜSo much is changing in this city," Tracie explains. ÜHow do we as African-Americans claim a neighborhood that we were forced into?" Tracie will be in residence in East New York in 2003, and the finished work will be co-produced by the Brooklyn organization 651 Arts in 2004.

After initial meetings with Creative Capital staff in 2000, Tracie began broadening the timeline for her project to accommodate collaboration with other artists and with the East New York community itself. In 2000, Tracie was awarded a $5,000 Strategic Financial Support grant that enabled her to purchase a Macintosh G4 computer and additional equipment; she was also awarded a 2001 Competitive Funding Opportunity grant for $20,000 that helped her establish vital relationships in East New York through a community liaison. As her project grew and changed, Creative Capital helped her meet its changing demands. "They've been supportive of all the project's permutations," Tracie says. "The support I got allowed me to take it further."

In addition to financial awards, Tracie took full advantage of Creative Capital's consultants and attended the summer retreats in 2000, 2001, and 2002. In 2000, she met with Colleen Keegan, who has maintained an ongoing advisory relationship with Tracie. She also met with Kristy Edmunds from the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art in 2000 and Performance Space 122's Mark Russell in 2000 and 2001. Tracie says that the consultants with whom she met, especially those like Keegan who bring expertise from other fields, helped her clarify her long-range goals as an artist. ÜThe consultations became a meditation on being honest with what I really want." Looking back at her initial meetings with Keegan and the staff, Tracie says, ÜAlmost everything we talked about has come about, ahead of schedule."

At the 2002 retreat, Tracie was approached by Arizona State University presenter Colleen Jennings-Rogensack, who offered to co-commission…along with the Walker Art Center's Philip Bither…Tracie's new work The Afro-Futuristic Project. The two helped Tracie win a National Dance Project Touring grant for the work, which is a collaboration with choreographer David Thompson and which will premiere at The Kitchen in January 2003. Subsequently, The Afro-Futuristic Project was recently awarded a Composer/Choreographer collaboration grant from Meet The Composer.

In addition to the direct and indirect impact Creative Capital has had on her career, Tracie has developed and maintained ongoing relationships with several other grantees. In 2001, she and visual artist Xenobia Bailey collaborated on a performance at Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Tracie recently joined filmmaker Ela Troyano's Board of Directors. In 2002, she was one of seven Creative Capital grantees to be included in the Whitney Biennial, the only poet featured in the exhibition. In describing the overall effect Creative Capital has had on The East New York Project, Tracie says, It's gone from the kind of project I'd been doing to the project I'd been dreaming of doing.