MSU Alumni Association – Executive Officers

Morgan Pride – The Artists

In an era in which “what” often dominates the culture with its super-high-tech products and processes, the arts represent the always vital, always relevant “why” for humankind. Graduates of Morgan State University’s fine arts programs have long led the world in answering that “why?” Fair Morgan is world-renowned for its contributions to excellence in the arts, producing countless performing and visual artists who have uplifted humanity and exemplified Morgan’s Core Values with their work, and who continue to do so today.

Here we spotlight just a few of the distinguished stewards of Morgan’s powerful legacy in the arts.

Musical Dreamer

“We are the riot. Because the same Baltimore, Maryland the world saw in flames is full of crabeating, Old Bay Seasoning, Inner Harbor dwelling, chicken box ordering, unique umlaut accent having dreamers, truth seekers, freedom fighters, riot starting, change makers….”

Those poetic opening words of the 2023 Emmy Award-winning Maryland Public Television documentary Artworks: “Dreamer” herald the full maturity of an exceptional Morgan-grown musical talent.

Composer and vocalist Jasmine Barnes grew up in Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood near Pimlico Race Course and explored wide-ranging artistic interests throughout her childhood and teens until she arrived at Morgan State University, in 2010, where music rose to the top.

“I started (at Morgan) as an architecture major, and when I changed my major (to music), everything made sense. I think being surrounded by so many professional artists who were Black meant a lot,” Barnes says. She had played instruments as a member of the marching band in high school, Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, she adds, “but I really didn’t understand music theory. I never had a voice lesson until Morgan. I never composed anything until Morgan.”

A prolific composer now, at age 31, still very early in her career, Barnes has written five operas, including, “She Who Dared,” a two-hour work with librettist Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, about the women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Artworks: “Dreamer,” an episode executive-produced by another Morgan graduate, Maryland Public Television Senior Vice President and Chief Content Officer Travis Mitchell, ’92, follows her collaboration with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society on a musical tribute to Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Among her other recent works are a song cycle titled “A Sable Jubilee” commissioned by baritone Will Liverman.

Historical subjects often motivate her work, Barnes says, “and I owe that to just living in Baltimore, as far as learning Black history. But I won’t even say Black history because, really, I learned American history. I’ve always seen the well-rounded view of America that comes with being an AME Church kid. Both my parents are pastors, my mom is a pastor in the AME Church, and my grandmother was a preacher in the AME Church. So I’ve been surrounded by history my whole life.”

Barnes holds two Morgan degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in Voice and Opera, awarded in 2015, and the University’s first conferred Master of Arts in Music Theory and Composition, awarded in 2018. And she credits her Morgan peers, her close network of composer friends (“the Blacknificent 7”) and her many Morgan mentors — among them Morgan Choir Director and Fine and Performing Arts

Chair Eric Conway, Morgan Associate Professor of Music James Lee III, Morgan President David K. Wilson and Morgan Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Tanya Rush, now retired — with guiding her to her current success.

Her connection with Morgan is permanent, Barnes says. “I would love to campaign for Morgan, to get more composition students. I figure the success of my career will make other young Black (students) want to compose and want to come to Morgan for it. That is a plan of mine.”

Hollywood Trendsetters

“A Hollywood trailblazer” who “makes multiculturalism happen” is how Morgan Magazine characterized writer, producer and author Doreen Spicer-Dannelly in 2012, and the words about the Morgan graduate are just as true today. Best known for developing and producing the Disney Channel hit The Proud Family, which aired from 2001–2005, SpicerDannelly, of Morgan’s Class of 1993, has a long list of other major creative credits, among them developer and writer of the film “Jump In,” which broke records for the Disney Channel with 8.2 million viewers, in 2007; creator of the international hit sitcom The Wannabes Starring Savvy, which debuted in 2010; and author of the junior novel “Love Double Dutch,” published in 2018. And she is still expanding her portfolio of family entertainment projects geared toward diverse audiences: Disney has ordered a reboot of The Proud Family — The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder — and “Love Double Dutch” has been optioned by a producer for a television series based on the book.

“Look out for a new middle grade novel in 2024,” she adds. “I can’t reveal the name or the subject, but it’s going to be a goodie!”

Spicer-Dannelly has a multicultural heritage: the New York native is Black and Puerto Rican. She studied acting at two performing arts schools in Brooklyn before enrolling at Morgan as a Communications major. The fortuitous launch of a Morgan writing program sponsored by Warner Bros. during her first year gave her a greater outlet for her creativity, and impressing writer-directorproducer Samm-Art Williams with her work ethic when she was a student was a boost to her career. Williams, of Morgan’s Class of 1968, had worked on several popular TV shows at the time, including The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.

Mentoring young screenwriters and animators is a calling Spicer-Dannelly takes as seriously as she does her own professional achievements. Her words of advice to aspiring writers and directors in 2012 echo her thoughts today.

“Know that Hollywood has no shortage of people with great ideas. The future belongs to those screenwriters and animators who diligently invest in developing themselves, their craft and keep up with technology and read up on the trades,” says Spicer-Dannelly. “Classes will give you the basics, but you must go beyond the classroom to make yourself a more valuable artist. Learn to be the creator, producer and marketer of your work. So, use the tools, materials and expertise available at Morgan to produce a few projects and establish your brand before you graduate. With that, you won’t be waiting to be discovered by Hollywood. You can launch your career from wherever you are or wherever your calling may lead you.”

Love and Life

With her commitment to giving back, it’s no surprise that Doreen Spicer-Dannelly — as well as playwright and filmmaker David E. Talbert, ’89, and Morgan professor MK Asante, Jr. — were career influencers for Morgan-grown director, producer and actor Devin J. Ricks. Ricks began making home videos for his family and friends when he was in elementary school and brought his longtime love for filmmaking with him when he began his studies as an 18-year-old undergraduate at Morgan State University in 2009. His experiences at the National Treasure, he says, gave him many of the artistic and life skills he’s needed to develop his passion into a full-fledged and still growing career.

Ricks is a Pikesville, Maryland, native and a 2013 graduate of Morgan’s Bachelor of Science in Broadcasting and Integrated Media/ Video Production program. He made a big, welcome entertainment splash through his

Continued from page 3 independent film company, Devin J. Ricks Productions, during the COVID pandemic, with the release of “Love Cycle: Situations Pt. 1,” the fourth work in his Love Cycle series, which he began when he was in high school, aiming to “share beautiful love stories, whether that deals with family, relationships, friendships, etc., and create a narrative that helps people navigate through the complicated emotion (of love),” he told Investor Telegraph in December 2021. The film showed in AMC theaters on the East Coast and followed his 2014 work, “Love Cycle: Beautiful Mistake,” which he launched with his first sold out premiere, a red carpet event with more than 500 attendees held at a hotel in Baltimore.

Between those two projects, Ricks has grown as an actor — another vocation that he loves — most recently with a role in the coming TV series Lady in the Lake; as founder and head of an online media/streaming platform, Dev TV!; and as owner of the apparel and lifestyle brand The DJR Experience. He has also built his professional network, including a connection with Spicer-Dannelly.

“One thing that Morgan taught me is to network, and everywhere you go, make sure you make yourself known,” Ricks says.

Morgan gave him vital knowledge about Black culture, Black excellence and Black accomplishments, and to “stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready,” Ricks says. “They were giving us the tools that we needed to navigate life, telling us this is what’s going to happen and this is how you conduct yourself in the interview.”

“When I graduated, I felt a calmness,” the artist says. “A lot of people panic, but for me, after going to Morgan, it was kind of like, ‘OK, this chapter is over. Remember what you’ve learned, and do your very best.’ ”

The Sound of Philadelphia

Leah Hawkins, world-renowned soprano, native of Philadelphia and member of Morgan’s Class of 2013, says her attraction to Morgan was “Destiny! A close family friend (Constance Baker, Class of 1957) attended Morgan State College and was a member of the Philadelphia Alumni Chapter. She’d have my dad sell tickets to the MSU Choir’s Annual Philadelphia Concert, so I started seeing the choir annually from about 10 years old.”

Hawkins is the most recent recipient of the Marian Anderson Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a young American singer in opera. (Her fellow Morgan alum Soloman Howard, ’09, also received the honor, in 2020.) She has crisscrossed the country and the globe in recent years, thrilling audiences with her performances with companies such as Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the Metropolitan Opera and Opéra national de Paris, fulfilling the career vision she believes she has had since birth. When she was 8 or 9 years old, her parents purchased a baby grand piano, “convinced I’d be one of those singers who accompanies herself on the piano. I quickly showed that it was not my gift,” she adds with a smile. “I saw my first opera, ‘Carmen,’ at Opera Philadelphia, and… told my parents that I wanted to learn to sing that way. They suggested voice lessons, we found a teacher, and here I am.”

Of course that educational journey also included invaluable experience as a Bachelor of Arts in Music student at Morgan. By the time she graduated from the National Treasure, Hawkins had traveled to six continents on tours with the Morgan State University Choir.

“It was so special to have time and space to connect with the University leaders who joined us for those tours, all while exploring new cultures and languages and representing my school abroad, and with my closest friends! The extensive travel as a student prepared me for the travel in this career. I have a sense of ease and trust in myself when I move about the world, because I learned it early on,” says Hawkins, who also credits Morgan for its world-class academic preparation. She earned a Master of Music in Voice from Yale University in 2015.

“Musical education made the coursework in my master’s degree a breeze,” she reports, “and my strong liberal arts education made me a much more well-rounded human than many of my colleagues.”

Called to Greatness

The artist says she has remained close to Morgan — returning to campus for concerts, appearing as a soloist with the Morgan State University choir with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra and, like another Philadelphia native in Morgan’s arts family, Issachah Savage, staying connected with Morgan’s music faculty and her Morgan peers.

Savage, a Bachelor of Arts in Music graduate of Morgan’s Class of 2003, is an internationally acclaimed tenor now working on operatic and concert stages with opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world. His most recent career milestones include taking on the title role of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser at Los Angeles Opera and a number of notable performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Opera, the

Canadian Opera Company and the Opéra National de Bordeaux, among others.

Well-supported in his youth, Savage was raised in a safe community by a very religious and musical family, but with no collegeeducated role models, he had no plans for higher education. A call from Morgan’s legendary Choir Director, the late Nathan Carter, changed his life.

“He had heard me sing on TV with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and invited me to come to Morgan. I didn’t know my performance would become an audition. I found out years later it was my mentor the late Blanche BurtonLyles (who) told him about me and said, ‘You need to hear him.’ I was offered a full tuition scholarship as a voice major. That was a forward in my life that will always give me pride.”

Like Leah Hawkins, Savage relishes his memories of the Morgan State University Choir concerts and tours.

“At no expense to the students, Morgan’s celebrity choir traveled all over the world, affording me many opportunities to work with top professionals in opera, jazz, R&B, musical theater and even in film. It was a magical experience and a hands-on education that money couldn’t buy. Morgan certainly gave me the necessary tools for the next phase of my development,” says Savage, who has continued his education, earning a Master of Music in Opera Voice Performance from The Catholic University of America.

“My experiences at Morgan superseded anything I could have dreamed of,” he adds. “I didn’t just learn music or academics. I also learned many life lessons and have formed lifelong relationships.”

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Portraying Truth

Coming to Morgan State University and its modern, then-new fine arts facility — Murphy Fine Arts Center — in the early 2000s, Helina Metaferia found a nurturing environment for her nascent career in the often-hypercompetitive field of the arts.

“I was encouraged by the faculty (to believe) that anything was possible,” she says.

As a Morgan graduate — Bachelor of Fine Arts, 2005 — Metaferia has made the most of that encouragement, bravely questioning and illuminating complex histories of institutionalized and systemic oppression with her interdisciplinary art, which includes collage, assemblage, video, performance and social engagement, and often utilizing her own body as a medium. Her work has had wide exposure, through solo exhibitions and projects with prestigious venues and events, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, and the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates, and in the permanent collections of numerous institutions, among them the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. An arts educator, as well, she engages with students in Brown University’s Visual Art Department as an Assistant Professor.

Metaferia fully embraces the multiple influences that have shaped her career. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Maryland, she is the child of Ethiopian immigrants who came to the U.S. in the 1960s and ’70s. Her mother, Maigenet Shifferraw, led a nonprofit organization for Ethiopian women and formerly taught at the University of the District of Columbia, before she passed in 2016. Her father, Getachew Metaferia, is a professor of Political Science and International Studies at Morgan, where he has served for 24 years. She says her parents have been pan-Africanist, progressive and feminist.

“This influenced the kind of art I currently make, including a lot of its political and feminist undertones,” says Metaferia. “As an artist, you need to be very curious of the world, while keeping a critical eye toward social constructs in order to make work about them. Having educators and activists as parents helped breed those characteristics in me.”

Guided by her high school art teacher to pursue a college degree in the field, Metaferia came to Morgan and studied with arts faculty such as Kenneth Royster, Eric Briscoe, Patrick McGuire, Blaise DePaolo, Guy Jones, Sam Holmes and others. Her English professor, Monifa Love Asante, encouraged her to go to graduate school “and was a big reason I ended up at Tufts University’s School of Fine Art for my (Master of Fine Art),” she recalls. “I feel honored to be shaped by such amazing educators, and they, along with my parents, are a big reason why I teach art today.”

Her Morgan education has prepared her well, Metaferia says. “Historically Black Colleges and Universities have a strong legacy in cultivating well-rounded experiences for their students. I felt I had a good foundation in learning about myself, with all of my courses taught from an African Diasporic perspective. This esteem cultivated through the HBCU experience at Morgan allowed me to enter graduate school and embark on my artistic journey with a strong sense of self and purpose.”

And, it’s been a real family affair.

“My brother, three of my cousins and I all graduated from Morgan State…. We’ve got a big Bear tradition in our family and are happy to have been supported by its HBCU legacy.”