BOOKMARKS Latest titles of interest from alumni and faculty authors. Visit oregonquarterly.com/bookmarks for more, or to submit a book for consideration.
BIG MOMENT WITH BIG BOI Growing up in Atlanta, Thomas began in the performing arts as a kindergartner and by age 12, she was teaching and choreographing at the church where her mother, Charlotte Dudley, ran the dance ministry. A pivotal moment arrived when Thomas was 15: she performed with the Atlanta Ballet and Big Boi, of the progressive hip-hop duo OutKast, in the production, big. “I remember very vividly being given a compliment from choreographer Lauri Stallings on the height of my jumps and commitment to the movement,” Thomas says. “Dancing onstage with that vibrant and whimsical set as a young dancer catalyzed my desire to be a professional dance artist.”
DANCING FOR JOY Thomas was featured in this winter’s faculty dance concert, which offered a hip-hop fusion work and explored human resilience, endurance, and finding strength in community. Thanks to a research grant for new faculty, Thomas is developing a film project about Black joy, a cultural movement based on the premise of choosing pleasure to combat the traumas of racism. She’s had award-winning success as the creative director of two dance films: Strange Realities and This Must Be the Place. “I am very inspired by putting movement on film,” Thomas says, “and allowing the camera to be one of the dancers.”
X Solid Ivory: A Memoir by James Ivory, BA ’51 (fine and applied arts) X Manywhere: Stories by Morgan Thomas, MFA ’16 (creative writing) X Unforgiving Savage: A Peter Savage Novel by Dave Edlund, PhD ’87 (chemistry)
X The Sound of Exclusion: NPR and the Latinx Public by Christopher Chávez, associate professor, School of Journalism and Communication X Medieval Badges: Their Wearers and Their Worlds by Ann Marie Rasmussen, BA ’76 (German) X Oregon’s Ancient Forests: A Hiking Guide by Chandra LeGue, MS ’01 (environmental studies)
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