Tracie Morris is a poet. This means that she conforms to some preconceived notions of what a poet is and does. At the same time, she has worked steadily over the last decade to redefine the limits of what poetry, and a poet, can be.

So, yes, she writes observations of life in measured verses of keen language. Yes, she performs her work, the lone poet on a stage with a microphone. And yes, she leads a band that creates elaborate, immersive and emotive sounds within which her poems resonate even more. However, she bristles at easy classifications of either “performance poet” or “musical poet.”

“These qualifications are imprecise,” Morris says. What many would see as separate endeavors—performing, teaching, presenting academic papers, leading a band—she sees as one thing: working with poetry. She’s developed a multidisciplinary approach to her work that has enabled her to successfully integrate poetry with other art forms—theater, dance, music, visual art, digital art and film—as well as to bring to bear her keen observations on race, gender, interpersonal relationships, and the political landscape.

While she is the author of two poetry collections— Intermission and Chap-T-her Won— and has been anthologized in a host of literary magazines, books, and newspapers, Morris hardly clings to the notion that a poem can only exist within the page. Rather, an important part of her process is to determine which “medium” best suits each poem. She explains that some poems are to be experienced by being read on the page, others by being performed sonically, and some poems which do both. In the case of sound poems—poems whose meaning is based on the sounds of words, not just their literal meanings—Morris believes they are meant to engage the body by the auditory and physical presence created by the incremental manipulation of the words.

Morris made her mark on the then-burgeoning Hip-Hop influenced New York poetry scene a decade ago when she won both the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam championship and the National Haiku Slam Championship. Soon thereafter, she began to add more experimental sounds to her work, including free jazz and African and Indian classical music. With her current band—Sonic Synthesis —she creates soundscapes that blend rock, jazz, hip-hop and funk with experimental digital loops, samples, and special effects.

“I like to work with this band and its technology to have people just hear other possibilities for sounds and music and how they can work together,” she says. “The technology, the loops, the samples, they’re all representations of the kind of emotions I’m trying to pull out of people.”

Her exciting work has garnered the attention and respect of other artists, working with a range of internationally recognized musicians such as Vernon Reid, Cecilia Smith, David Murray, Val Jeanty, Charlie Hunter, Marvin Sewell and Graham Haynes. She has also participated in over a dozen recording projects with avant-garde musicians. In 2002, she was honored to be the only poet asked to create an installation of her work for the 2002 Whitney Biennial. She has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia .

Having spent so much time clarifying and sharpening her approach to poetry, it comes as no surprise that she’d be asked to share her insights. Morris has been a member of the poetry faculty at Sarah Lawrence College . After performing at an event for New York City ’s Poet’s House in 1997, she was approached by the head of the College’s Poetry Department, who told her “my students need to learn what you could teach them” and suggested she apply for a position at the school. She joined the faculty in 1998.

That Morris was part of a cultural moment and became a keen observer of cultural trends did not go unnoticed by the academy. Long before her appointment to Sarah Lawrence and before she held degrees from both Hunter College (BA and MFA) and New York University (MA and now a Ph. D. candidate), other academics interviewed her for papers they were writing. “It was great to have an opportunity to talk about my work with academics,” she says, “It’s certainly been flattering but it also felt somewhat disempowering. It was like I was being talked about but wasn’t sure how to respond in that language.” Her response was to become a more active participant in academic conferences, particularly when she was invited to perform. “I started asking to also submit a statement or an article, so that I could speak for myself.” This has led to her delivering papers and articles at prestigious academic conferences including: New York University ’s Soul Conference on Black Power, Politics and Pleasure; The Hemispheric Institute Conference in Lima , Peru ; The Langston Hughes Centenary Conference at Yale University ; Poetry and the Public Sphere at Rutgers University ; and an African-American Poetry Symposium for the Poetry Society of America.

Morris continues to balance life as both an artist—she’s worked on commissioned pieces for such organizations as The Kitchen, Aaron Davis Hall, the International Festival for the Arts, Franklin Furnace and Yale Repertory Theater for choreographer Ralph Lemon—and as an academic.  “I’ve found that one feeds the other,” says Morris. “The intellectual stimulation and insight I get from working with students and being in a community of scholastic ideas certainly informs and adds to my work as an artist. As I become a better artist, I hope to also become a better thinker and teacher and be in a stronger position to share my insights with students and colleagues.”

Guided by both curiosity and intellectual rigor, Morris continues to explore the meaning and dimensions of poetry. For more information, please visit her website at www.traciemorris.net.

Tracie Morris will appear on Saturday, Oct. 28, 12:30 pm in the Salt Lake City Main Library, Auditorium. Tracie will also conduct in the Poetry Workshop on Saturday, Oct. 28, 3:30-4:30 pm, in the Salt Lake City Main Library, 4th Floor Conference Room. The Poetry Slam and Contest will be next at 4:30-5:30 pm, 4th Floor Conference Room, with prizes awarded following contest.