We were lucky to catch up with Morgan Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents are some of the most supportive people in my life. They are open, honest ,understanding and compassionate. While also instilling discipline, confidence, and a strong yet efficient work ethic.

They allowed for open communication to express my feelings, thoughts, and opinions. They allowed me to explore different passions at my own choosing instead of forcing me to play a certain sports or instruments; for example I did karate, played viola, sold paintings, and more.

The thing I think my parents did absolute right was allowing me to find my voice without retribution if it differed from theirs. To speak up for myself in order to not allow the outside world to walk over me. My parents wanted me to be open minded and not judge people based on their differences; which is probably why I have such a wide variety of friends now. Overall the goal was for me to have my own version of freedom & happiness.

My mom likes to mention how even small choices such as asking me what I wanted for dinner growing up were small ways for me to start forming my own opinions. My dad taught me it’s how you respond that truly matters, not everything deserves your full energy just by skipping rocks in a creek. Both are teaching me financial literacy in wanting to create my own company or business. I even had a cookie business in middle school and sold paintings in high school.

My parents were open to learning about the things that interested me. We went to numerous art museums, science exhibits, the zoo, dance shows you name it. They helped pick costumes for my own pieces I choreographed in high school and college. Researched summer intensives, different dance companies, dance terminology, found a studio that I didn’t feel like the odd ball out, and drove me all over the DFW metroplex so I wouldn’t miss out on opportunities. They rarely missed a show and are usually the loudest in crowd cheering. To this day they still buy the virtual tickets to watch me perform and allow me to bounce my ideas off of them. They now have stronger understandings of various forms of dance not just whats popular in the media. They actually genuinely enjoy talking about different dances their opinions on choreography and the elements of a show.

If you ask me about my parents I could ramble on and on about the love, caring, and support they’ve shown me. I’m honestly not sure if they know how amazing they are, or if they’ve ever doubted themselves in parenting. I hope my very extensive answer to this question allows them to know how much they did right. I hope that they know a lot of small moments they probably didn’t even know I valued ;whether it was skipping rocks or ice cream runs, are the ones that show how beautiful of people they are the most without them even trying.

Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m originally from Dallas, Texas and trained at Dallas Black Dance Academy for most of my childhood. I grew up performing in their youth companies throughout the city and at conferences such as IABD, the International Association of Blacks in Dance. I graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in 2015. While going to Booker, I was able to work with various choreographers such as Bridget Moore, Jennifer Mabus, Rennie Harris, and Juel D. Lane to name a few. Booker T. was probably the start of me learning how to truly collaborate with artist in different fields.

I received my BFA in Dance with a minor in Sociology from Sam Houston State University in 2019. It was there that I continued my dance studies and started to truly developed my version of artistry. I was able to play more with choreographing whether it was for class or shows. I discovered there was more to the dance world than what I was already previously exposed to in high school. Plus had the amazing opportunity to work with Sidra Bell for a piece in Dance Gallery Texas and try my hand at ariel silks.

After graduation, I moved back to Dallas where I began my professional career teaching master classes and working with some smaller companies until moving to Houston. Now here in Houston, by taking class and keeping connected with people I’ve met throughout the years; I’ve been able to begin building a name for myself in the city. I am a founding company member of IMU Dance. Currently I’m dancing in a company in Houston while being a freelance artist, teaching at a studio and building my real estate career. I also hope to be debuting my own dance company in the next year or so.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The arts have always been a hard field to be in. Depending on the city you live, sometimes it can feel like there is an monopoly on what companies get the grants and funding. It can feel like smaller projects don’t really exist or no matter how hard you try to show up, you’re constantly over looked.

To the artist I would say to be open to collaboration. Be open to new perspectives on your work. Be open to change and adaptability. Welcome happy accidents in your creative processes and be willing to throw your hat in the ring. You truly never know who is watching and ready to help with the next big opportunity. With all of this though, there is a catch. You have to know your worth and fight for yourself. Whether that means financially or just for the integrity or boundaries you’ve set for yourself. Yes, we want to welcome opportunity and we want our work to be seen. We want to allow our audiences to gain or feel something. We want be to people to talk positively and share our work in order for the world to see it. This is all very true and things to strive for; but that doesn’t mean to lose who we are, forget our moral( whatever they may be per person), or accept being undervalued. Your work matters in a society that doesn’t always realize that art reflects the current times. It’s important to remember that.

To those that don’t consider themselves as artist, show up and show out! Go to your friends shows, celebrate their success! Social media is big in our culture today, you sharing their most recent piece or flyer helps bring eyes to their hard work. Stop asking your artist friends to do hours of work for ” exposure”. They have dancers to pay, materials to buy, spaces to rent.. it’s not just a fun hobby for a lot of artist and it truly is their livelihood just like a 9 to 5. Support local businesses that can be just as good if not better than a name brand. If we as a society are willing to spend hundreds to see our favorite artist in concert, buy our favorite designers,, then we should also be ok with buying tickets for our friends or families shows and products as well. They can reach their goals without your support with hard work, discipline, and faith, but it feels a lot better knowing they have people backing them up as well.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Honestly, I truly enjoy watching a finish product from a far. I don’t like being in my own work because then I don’t get to fully see how it turns out. I’d miss the big picture or the little moments that choreographically meant the most to me.

I enjoy being in the audience being able to watch the faces and reactions of the audience members whether it’s good or bad. Wondering if what my intentions were when creating was actually received. Moments in the lobby, in between dances when house lights are open, or even intermission when people are discussing a show.. over hearing their thoughts and opinions; what they loved and didn’t love are the most rewarding because they are the most raw. Those reactions and commentary are the real ones instead of what could be potentially a sugar coated version to save feelings. Yes sometimes it’s not always the greatest, but I value the purity and honesty of it.

The sweetest moments though are when you hear how your work touched, healed or even simply brought joy to someone in the most unexpected ways and you can feel the how genuine they are behind every word spoken.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discovering_mo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@discoveringmo8052
• Other: Please feel free to reach out to me via email at [email protected]

Image Credits

Tobaric Atkins- Montana
Joe Center
Lynn Lane
Bill Young