I, Milandi, am excited to utilize my integrated wisdom from over 20 years of  professional experience to serve US and global communities through expanding my consultancy and creating a cultural ministry of socially supportive wellness arts, which are deeply informed my lifelong pursuits of somatics facilitation, to liberate people from internalizing the oppressive world views which have been thrust upon us.  Now is the time to build a truly ecological civilization for sustaining us–we the people–of millennium 3.

I am a multidisciplinary artist, author, somaticist, facilitator and consultant, whose ancestry includes we Africans and we Indigenous North Americans.  We, who survived the Middle Passage, we who survived atrocities of chattel slavery in North America, we who survived settler colonialist atrocities of genocide and misogyny, and we who survive the abusive US infrastructures which ensued from these.   

I recently claimed my Afro-diasporic name, Milandi, in a gesture of self caring liberation from a colonized name which had been given to me by my internally oppressed elders in an attempt to protect me from anti-Black-Indigeneity.  The colonized name made it difficult for me to feel free.  Prior to claiming my proper name, Milandi, I was known as Margaret Marie Morris, occasionally performed under the name Moon Marie, and sometimes used the pen name Moonbones Evolutionary.

My writings have been published in  I Can’t Breath:  A Poetic Anthology of Social Justice (2021).  My voice appears on several albums as a collaborator and lead vocalist with jazz, funk and folk bands.  Excerpts from my Quantum Negress Tantras in progress have been published in Apogee Journal of Literature (Volume 11, 2018) , performed on stages and immersive settings, and published on the now defunct web publication quantumnegresstantras.love.  My sacred improvisations were honored with a photographic publication in Vogue Italia entitled Poses in the Manner of Butoh photographed by Carney Malone (2013), and I have collaborated in multiple productions of esteemed Daoist Choreographer Ayako Kato (2008-2019), activated illustrious visual artist Senga Nengudi’s RSVP Sculptures (2017), performed ritual movements in acclaimed jazz composer Nicole Mitchell’s Xenogenesis (2008), and was the original co-founding vocalist member of Lush Tongue with internationally recognized circle singing facilitator Onome (2012).

My performances and exhibitions have appeared in the US, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands and the interwebs.  I have facilitated and graced stages, galleries, academic institutions  and festivals including Festiwal Jazz Jantar of Poland (2017), The Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago (2003), Jazz Fest Berlin of Germany (2017), Movement Research of NYC (2009), Vision Festival of NYC (2017), Links Hall of Chicago (various 2002-2017), Howard University of DC (2015), Chicago Cultural Center (various 2002-2017), Wow Theater and Cafe of NYC (2010), Frequency Festival of Chicago (2020), DePaul Art Museum of Chicago (2017), Comfort Station (2019), Gallery 400 of Chicago (2018), Indiana State University (2017), College of Lake County (2017) and others.  

As a Black and Indigenous woman of North America, it is crucial that my work helps to relegate the communicable social and psychological disease known as settler colonialism, which divisively exploits and destroys humanity and our environment, to the annals of history.    

I, Milandi, have enjoyed the honor of being selected for artist’s residencies at Ragdale (2017); Links Hall (2006 and 2018); Elastic Arts (2020-2021), High Concept Labs (2018); Mordine and Company (2007), where I also served as the co-director of the Youth Dance Company (2006-2007); and the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago (2008).  My work and collaborations have garnered recognitions from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Awards (2006), The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation (2007), American Book Awards for Oral Literature (2018), Illinois Arts Council (2006), and Weasel Fund Foundation (2008).

Named the “zeitgeist” by the Chicago Tribune (2007), my body of work is comprised of wellness arts as performance, immersive theatrical ritual, and facilitated experiences including the following: ceremonial ritual; choreographic expression, vocal improvisational composition and live performance; video installation; social justice and creative writing publications; and over 20 years of teaching and facilitating somatic and socially supportive arts techniques.  I am also a Cook County Court approved certified mediator and carry an ordained ministerial card.

I utilize the sacred vessel of my body, my voice, my spirit and sometimes a drum to activate decolonized expression, release traumas and engage the miraculous joys which bring us–we the people–forth to build the world in which we prefer to be.