JAZ MORRISON

EARTHSTRONG: Black Dreaming in ‘the Wake’; Reflections on Futures Past

(The Open University, 2025)

'Using Christina Sharpe's (2016) concept of 'the wake' as living in the afterlives of the plantation, and some of [Pinnock’s] own work on Blackness and joy, this lecture works through ideas of dreams and Blackness as futurity in Black geographies scholarship.’​ [...] To do this, Dr Agostinho Pinnock will consider excerpts from Erna Brodber's One Bubby Susan as well as a film by Black British artist and film-maker, Jaz Morrison. Jaz's insights about Blackness and joy in Britain will be used to understand how Black futures are (re)imagined on film as a form of dreaming.'

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Hippodrome Origins: Introducing the first cohort of theatre makers in Birmingham Hippodrome's new artist development programme (Birmingham Hippodrome, 2025)

Note: Led by Anna Himali Howard and supported by Sophia Griffin, the 18-month programme features eight theatre writers and makers from the West Midlands: Amerah Saleh, Elizabeth O’Connor, Grace Barrington, Jaz Morrison, Louis Wharton, Nathan Sebastian Lafayette, Tina Hofman and Zakariye Abdillahi.

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IdentiTEA: University of Birmingham workshop leads to new sound art piece inspired by Stuart Hall’s work (University of Birmingham, 2024)

Note: A creative response to the workshop ‘Sounds of Being and Belonging’ facilitated by artist Jaz Morrison. The piece was composed by University of Birmingham alumna Mia Sugunasingha and commissioned as part of a series of workshops inspired by Stuart Hall.

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Reflections from The Arkhe: Associate Artist Lab (MAIA blog, 2024)

Note: In March 2024, MAIA hosted the final event in our Associate Artist’s Lab: The Arkhe. This Black British Embassy Launch, marked the culmination of many events and spaces that opened up the community. Read Jaz's reflection here.

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PechaKucha Birmingham at Birmingham Heritage Week

(Birmingham Heritage Week & PechaKucha Birmingham, 2024)

Note: On Sunday 15th September, Jaz delivered Pecha Kucha style presentation 'Birmingham's Tea' in response to Birmingham Heritage Week. At Moseley Hive with PechaKucha Birmingham.

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Sounds of being and belonging: creative workshop

(University of Birmingham, 2024)

'A workshop inviting conversation and creative responses to Stuart Hall’s work. Facilitated by artist-curator Jaz Morrison, researchers from the University of Birmingham, and sound artist Mia Sugunasingha, culminating in a new sound piece, bringing together different languages and perspectives on belonging in the city.'

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Rest: Nestival of Ideas (Talking Birds, 2024)

'Episode 6 of Nestival of Ideas features a brilliant panel of former Nest Residents including Sam Holley-Horseman, Sym Mendez and Jaz Morrison, and was chaired by Janet Vaughan, Co-Artistic Director of Talking Birds. This panel discussion explored the notion of Rest as Resistance, but also considered the complexity of choice (and who has it) in relation to rest. How might we start to collectively shape structures to support rest with purpose and connection?'​  |  Read Jaz's reflection on 'Rest'

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Introducing The Arkhe: MAIA Associate Artist Lab (MAIA, 2024)

'MAIA has been collaborating and conspiring with artist - curator - researcher Jaz Morrison, as our current associate artist. [...] Jaz has been in the process of exploring culture building for Black British folx, that makes space for ancestral wisdoms, community care and honouring states of liminality. [...] What could life - affirming Black British culture look like as a reclamation and ongoing exploration? What skills, principles and ancestral wisdoms could we take with us onto the Arkhe?'

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GOD-POCKET (Eastside Projects, 2023)

'You are invited into the GOD-POCKET, an Afrospeculative ‘firmament’ situated between time and space. It is a crossroads between the seen past and unseen future; a pocket universe where Otherness learns to become morphological. [... Various] Afro-Diasporic musings have highlighted a need to create and hijack ‘liminal spaces’ within the public sphere for social practice.'

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ALL ABOUT LOVE: Grief, A Love Letter (BRMTWN, 2023)

'Grief: A Love Letter is part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD's first major curatorial and artist commission All About Love, taking over large-format billboards across Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester between April – September.' On Saturday 29 April 2023, Ndiritu hosted a performative event at Digbeth Art Space, reading on Grief and Love with artists and writers, from or based in Birmingham, including Jaz Morrison.

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Liminal People: Guided Meditation & Film Night (Eastside Projects, 2023)

'Films draw upon the musings and anxieties present within the Black British Diaspora – refuge from systemic violence; the tangibility of ‘Black Britishness’; a lack of tools to work through trauma; and the other cultural-social implications of a postcolonial aftermath.' A precursory event, curated by Jaz Morrison.

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‘Equations for a Body at Rest’: Best Public Art of 2022 (Artsy Editorial, 2022)

Note: In 2022, Jaz worked on the offsite curation team for Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi's 'Equations for a Body at Rest', assisting with community engagement, and organising a micro-screening festival that positioned Thenjiwe's film alongside local filmmakers including Yonatan Tiruneh. More about the project: equationsforabodyatrest.com

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‘In Loving Memory of Ronnie’ Curatorial Community Billboard Project

(Grand Plan Grantees, 2022)

'Their Grand Plan [was] to turn a Newtown-based billboard into a temporary art display, giving the young people who live there an opportunity to get involved in art-making, as well as a sense of "ownership" over constituency-proximate infrastructure.'

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Creating Joy Film Festival & Roundtable: EARTHSTRONG

(Eastside Projects Members Activity, 2022)

'The ‘Creating Joy Film Festival & Roundtable‘ is designed to prove a needed space for Black Diasporic filmmakers and artists to unsettle dominant representations of Blackness in visual culture. [...] Jaz Morrison (director and writer) and Fábio Calundungo (cinematographer) will be showcasing their experimental film ‘EARTHSTRONG’, a homage to the restorative power of community, told through the aesthetic of a black-and-white, silent film.'

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Stephen Lawrence Research Centre: Creating Joy (De Montford University, 2022)

'Creating Joy: Art, Refusal and the Worlding of Black Lives  is a radical, digital space that explores Black diasporic life through artmaking. [...] the project explores the creation of spaces of care that normalise Black practices of refusal (Brand, 2020).'

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OFFSITE 9: Wolveren Watchmen (Eastside Projects Members Activity, 2022)

'JAZ MORRISON’s ‘Wolveren Watchmen’ features the stories of four Wolverhampton-based workers and residents: NEOne the Wonderer, Mickey Angel, Leanne O’Connor & Sahjan Kooner, with the emphasis that it is the people who make a city what it is, not the institutions.'

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British Art Show 2022: OFFSITE 9 Singlepoint (Creative Black Country, 2022)

'It's important if we are serious about how we imagine more successful futures together that we start first with creating opportunities for agency with our creatives, and trust that their experiences and histories don't need institutional interpretation.'

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Firmament with Ikon Youth Programme (IKON, 2021)

'Jaz Morrison collaborated with IYP to respond to 'A Ship Called Jesus (Redux)' (2021) by Keith Piper. [...] Firmament explored the movement of the Black Diaspora across sea, sky and land. Through gestural movements with objects, such as flags, IYP considered the idea of ‘everyday life’ as sacred.'

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MAIA’s The Spatial Imagination (MAIA, 2021)

Note: MAIA's The Spatial Imagination (29th – 30th January 2021), involved 28 artists and speakers, and over 360 attendees from 9 different countries. Jaz explored the theme 'In a Liberated Future, I Imagine...' in conversation with Auden Allen.

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PEEP @ Stryx (Stryx Gallery, 2020)

Note: In 2020, Stryx began a 6-month long online residency programme called ‘Peep@Stryx,’ showcasing the diversity of artistic practices in the West Midlands. 22 artists participated between June and October.

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On Atlantics: A Reflection of Blackness (Black Ballad, 2019)

"From slavery, to the Windrush Generation (and their deportations decades later), to the Brain Drain [...] and refugees trying to escape capitalism and colonialism, the sea is an ever-present figure throughout the black diaspora."

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Jaz & BRMTWN: Switch Radio (Switch Radio, 2019)

Note: Switch Radio Host Ashlee Elizabeth-Lolo interviews Jaz Morrison about BRMTWN and the work they've been doing. Switch Radio is a community radio station, broadcasting from the North East Birmingham region. For more, visit switchradio.co.uk

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Meet the Team: Culture Catwalk (Beatfreeks’ Southside Producers, 2017)

"We don’t want people to just stumble across our Culture Catwalk stage, we want people to be anticipating our stage, [...] The Culture Catwalk is a massive an opportunity to shed light on Birmingham’s creative scenes and artists."

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Routes2Roots: Retrospective (Heritage Fund, 2016) 

'I think everyone who chose to get involved in Routes2Roots did so because they share the same unshakeable belief that the future should not only be decided by a few, so neither should the past.'

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Roots2Roots: Finding Myself in Funkadelic (Beatfreeks Blog, 2016)

"One of the best ways to find yourself is to take a journey back to your origins and find out why certain things are the way they are."

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