Jessica Lanay

Jessica Lanay (She/They) is Artist-in-Residence at Loyola University Chicago's Department of Fine and Performing Arts for the 2024-2025 academic year. An interdisciplinary writer, poet, and art journalist, Lanay engages with the Fine Arts Program through teaching, curating exhibitions, and organizing events including a colloquium featuring experimental performance artists Jefferson Pinder and Ayana Evans, and a solo exhibition of Denae Howard's work in the Ralph Arnold Gallery.

Her research interests include:

• Black feminist interdisciplinary writing and poetry
• African Diasporan art and aesthetics
• West and Central African spiritual practices in diaspora
• Radical Black feminist performance art
• Epistemologies of Black aesthetics
• Multicultural interconnectivity and Black migration histories

Lanay's creative trajectory demonstrates a consistent focus on how African diasporic aesthetics challenge Western conceptions of humanity. Her poetry collection "am•phib•ian" (2020), which won the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize, exemplifies her experimental approach. Recent work increasingly features collaborations with major institutions like the Brooklyn Museum and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, often centering Black women's experiences through projects like the "Black Girl Altar" installation.

Her notable awards include:

• Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize from Broadside Lotus Press (2020)
• Broadside Poetry Press award for "am•phib•ian" (judged by Toi Derricotte)

Lanay actively mentors emerging artists as literary curator at The August Wilson African American Cultural Center, hosting the monthly LIT Friday program featuring artists like Nona Faustine and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Her teaching practice connects directly with research, as evidenced by her upcoming African Art course at Loyola University Chicago, which will incorporate community collaboration with A Long Walk Home. Currently a PhD Candidate in Art History at Indiana University-Bloomington, her dissertation examines radical Black feminist performance art throughout the African diaspora, exploring how aesthetics of radicality contribute to cultural preservation and transformation.