Clay as a Tool to Tell Some of the Stories of African Americans in the Midwest

A conversation on "The Potters Cast" with Paul Blais

It was an absolute pleasure to join Paul Blais on his podcast where he talks with clay artists about their story of life with clay.

And we did just that.

Over the course of our conversation, we journeyed through how I came to clay, my relationship with it as material and interlocutor and community member thus far, how ceramic artist residences have expanded my practice, what I intend to study and create in my PhD program, and how ceramics can be a medium for exhuming and exploring histories that have been buried, forgotten, or were never unearthed in the first place.

What I’ve come to realize about my practice¹ (and we talk about this in the conversation) is that no matter what medium I am working with, I am trying to engage the same question, communing with the same ancestors, thinking with the same folks.

There is no separation or privileging of/amongst methods. The work inter-is.

So, if you’re curious about the worlds I am building² in my practice and/or what I’m endeavoring to center as I enter graduate school this fall, I invite you to listen in.³

Thanks again for having me Paul.⁴

And endless, forever thank you to my ancestors, Zachariah and Mary Rebecca Nevitt Morgan⁵ for calling me to clay and to those ancestors known and unknown for providing for and sustaining me.

more soon,
Gabrielle

1. Work is available here.

2. If you aren’t familiar, you need to tap in with

Ayana Zaire Cotton

’s Worldbuilding framework. The whole framework, but here, here, and here might be some places to start.

3. The conversation is also available on Apple Podcasts.

4. The actual name of the artist whose thoughts I referenced around specificity and universality is Sadie Barnette, not Legacy Russell. Source: The Creative Independent.

5. Notes From A Trip to Past/Present 014