______ As Myth
This project conceived by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, 2021-22 CERCL Artist in Residence and owner of Deep Ink, LLC, includes a community writing workshop centered on personal mythology (modeled after her forthcoming book Black Chameleon), an art-based project that interprets local mythologies into visual art, and a community exhibit highlighting student, community and professional artists at the Moody Center for the Arts.
________ As Myth Writers
A two part generative workshop where Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton led participants to create mythology based in the in-betweens of their own lives. Artists then interpreted myths created at the writing workshop by the writers below and from Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton’s memoir Black Chameleon (2023)
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton
Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton is an internationally-known, multi-hyphenate literary artist, director, performer, critic and the first Black Poet Laureate of Houston, TX. She is the author of the 2019 poetry collection Newsworthy with Bloomsday Literary (and its German counterpart Berichtenswert with Elif Verlag), which was a finalist for the The Writer's League of Texas Book Award. Her poems have garnered her a pushcart nomination and been translated across multiple genres and languages. She has been a contributing writer for Glamour, Texas Monthly, Muzzle, and ESPN's The Undefeated.
Currently, she is a Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater, Rice University (CERCL), and the Houston Museum of African American Culture.
Malaika Bergner
Malaika Joy Bergner is a senior at Rice University studying Social Policy Analysis and minoring in African and African American Studies. She proudly serves as this year's President of the Rice Black Student Association and loves building community among Black folks at Rice. She's from Chicago and attributes her love for creative writing and poetry to her city and its rich culture and history. She enjoys spending time in nature, discovering new music, and of course writing!
Madeline Gaffney
Madeline Gaffney is a currently getting her master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling: Couples, Marriage & Family at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Before pursing this path, she was a corporate lawyer for 4 years. She grew up in League City, Texas and attended Houston Baptist University for college, followed by the University of Texas School of Law. Madeline has loved writing and stories since she learned how to read.
Hassan Xavier Henderson-Lott
Hassan Xavier Henderson-Lott is an educational entrepreneur, writer, and black studies researcher. Hassan’s work shares in the critical study of practices and relations and intimacies rendered “black religion” and the ways they open up newer, artful styles of (human) existence. He has served as a graduate research associate at Columbia Univerisity’s Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics and Social Justice (CARSS) and presently serves as a graduate liaison for The Center on Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning (CERCL) at Rice University. Hassan holds a B.A. in Religion from Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia (2016). In 2019 he earned a Master of Divinity Degree in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Hassan is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Religion, African American Religion concentration at Rice University where his research engages black religious studies, performance, poetics, and critical theory. He currently serves as a graduate board member on the student advisory committee for the University’s newly installed Center on African and African American Studies (CAAAS).
K. Ellie Mae
Kenyatha V. “K. Ellie Mae” Loftis, Ph.D. creates moments of communal sharing, reflection, and transformation. A social scientist and lifelong explorer of the arts, K. Ellie Mae weaves together formal and informal learning across age groups, cultures, subject matters, and space/time using literature, music, arts & crafts, and social science research. K. Ellie Mae currently resides and creates on the Texas Gulf Coast. For more information, connect with her via
Website: http://Kenyatha.Vision
Email: k.elliemae@kenyatha.vision
Instagram: @k.elliemae.