Tiyi Morris

Tiyi Morris is Associate Professor of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University at Newark and director of the Ohio Prison Education Exchange Project (OPEEP). She received her doctorate in American Studies from Purdue University. She is the author of Womanpower Unlimited and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi (University of Georgia Press, 2015) and co-executive producer, with Dr. Virginia Cope, of two films documenting the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans: Spirit Leads My Needle: The Big Chiefs of Carnival and It’s Your Glory: The Big Queens of Carnival. Both air seasonally on New Orleans’ PBS station (WYES). Dr. Morris and Dr. Cope are producing a third documentary, with Ohio State Newark students and their Mardi Gras Indian partners, of the pandemic’s impact on the tradition, due for release in 2023.