Exhibitions
TY MURRAY & JAZMIN WITHERSPOON: NURTURING NATURE
Relay Ridge / 4124 McKinley St. April 17 - May 23rd (Reception: April 17 6:00pm - 9:00pm)
Ty Murray, Jazmin Witherspoon
To bring more voices into the conversation about human interactions with the natural world, we must change the parameters of the conversation. --- Camille T. Dungy, Black Nature
Nurturing Nature: An Afrolachian Prayer is an ekphrastic exploration rooted in Appalachian landscape and Black Femme identity. This duo exhibition by Ty Murray and Jazmin Witherspoon is a photopoetry interpretation of the nature we inherit and the nature we cultivate within ourselves. A dance between what is seen and what is felt, this exhibit reminds us that we are all animals, sharing many survival and environmental concerns.
The installation moves the audience from exterior landscape into intimate interior, reflecting nature’s imprint on the artists. It is a curious offering, where handwoven textiles, ceramics, and wearable art become detours into the wandering mind of an artist.
Murray’s photographic portraits approach the body as canvas, creating a space where land, identity, and adornment converge. In each image, the subject is not passing through the landscape but rooted within it, emerging as part of the terrain. The essence of animism grounded the series, embodying the belief that all living things hold spirit. Printed on fabric and intentionally unframed, the photographs remain unbound. They move gently with the air, emphasizing breath and freedom of form.
Jazmin Witherspoon is a daughter of the earth and a lover of other animals. Through the poems in this collection, Witherspoon returns to her affinity for the wildside. These poems see animals as thinking, breathing beings whose concerns and ways of moving through landscape mirror how she has experienced Blackness in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. They are part ekphrastic response to the photographs, part intuitive animal-whispher, giving reverence to mother nature and the creatures that inhabit this planet.
Birthed from a decade-long friendship, this creative kinship reflects a journey from girlhood into self-defined womanhood through image, poem, and object. Murray and Witherspoon cultivate an environment where Blackness is not peripheral to Appalachian narratives, but central to them, and where the act of nurturing both embraces and liberates.
What if we emphasized the sacredness of Black womanhood, like the animals for whom we build sanctuaries?
Ty Murray is a Renaissance woman rooted in the Appalachian South, Ty Murray is a multi-faceted artist and activist based in Knoxville, TN. As a 2026 NCECA multicultural fellow, she works across photography, music, and clay, crafting sensory experiences that honor the past while imagining liberated futures. She holds a BS in Public Relations from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and has been a local musical tastemaker since 2017 as a vinyl DJ and previous host of Soul Power on 90.3 The Rock. She is a member of the Maker City Council, Waymakers Collective and is the founder of Ceramic Soul Collective. Ty embraces art as a force for connection, empowerment, and communal healing. Beyond her artistry, she is a cultural worker, director of art, and founding member of The Bottom Knoxville.
Jazmin Witherspoon is an Appalachian poet and multi-media artist whose work has appeared in Ghost City Review, Cacti Fur, and other journals. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky, where she was a two-time Nikky Finney Fellow (2022, 2023) and the 2023 winner of the KLP Broadside Poetry Contest. Jazmin has been a writer-in-residence at Sundress Publications (Fall 2024) and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Spring 2024). She was the Windgate Fellow at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in 2025 and is the recipient of the 2026 Cushman/Clemons Scholarship at Penland School of Craft. She currently works as the Program Manager at Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University.
