Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History (2017-2025) was a 501(c)(3) non-profit that operated according to the worker self-directed non-profits model developed by the Sustainable Economies Law Center in Oakland, California. Following the disability justice & allied justice movement ethos of nothing about us without us, our leadership, core team, & board, across our eight-year run, were made up of, by, & for the communities we served: reflecting the real, lived diversity of North-Central Ohio, & loving it as our greatest asset.
CONTACT US at marionvoicesoralhistory@gmail.com for questions, to get involved, or to recommend a community member to be documented for our project work! Note: Marion Voices has sunset as of late 2025; our email will be monitored less frequently since we no longer officially exist — we will make every effort to get back to you, but, in this post-dissolution era, please note that response time may be one month or longer.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Marion Voices formally dissolved by vote of its Board of Directors in Winter 2025. We are grateful to our “outgoing” board for their service, bravery, and commitment to sustainability & succession planning during an enormously difficult & devastating year for the arts & culture sector.
Ms. Linda Sims — President of the Board, Radio Personality, Organizer, & Chair of Marion Black Joy Summerfest
Cindy McGuire, Artist-in-Chief at China Cupboard Bears
Micah Walker, Journalist at BridgeDetroit
Fiora Monica Gates, Artist & Marion Area LGBTQ+ Coalition
Nicole Boyd, Poet, Teaching Artist, & Nursing Student
HISTORICAL LEADERSHIP
Johnnie Lewis Jackson — Marion Voices Co-Founder & Community Coordinator
Johnnie Lewis Jackson is a Marion County educator & racial justice visionary trained in Black studies, curriculum studies, & diversity, equity, & inclusion. With a Bachelors & MBA from the University of Findlay, Johnnie traveled the world as a teacher trainer & teacher of English: including in Korea & Argentina, before returning to the United States to pursue a PhD. in Curriculum Studies at Miami University: focused on the experience of Black men in study abroad, imagined & enacted as the Black Boy Abroad project.
An experienced leader in Youth Participatory Action Research & emancipatory methods, Johnnie’s work centers critical race theory, decolonial methods, abolition, & more just futures for all.
Johnnie served as Marion Voices‘ Community Coordinator: working to connect Marion Voices work to diverse communities, organizations, & projects across Marion County towards ever-widening participatory collaboration for collective liberation.
Johnnie is a proud graduate of Harding High School, & now serves his alma mater as Family & Community Coordinator (fka Diversity & Equity Supervisor) for Marion City Schools. Beyond Marion Voices & Marion City Schools, Johnnie provides consultancy services to schools, individuals, & non-profits through his Harambee Speaks consultancy, & writes & publishes broadly on Black experience, auto-ethnography, & abolitionist futures.
Jess Lamar Reece Holler — Marion Voices Co-Founder & Executive Director
Jess Lamar Reece Holler was a community-based public folklorist, oral historian, curator and multimedia producer based in North-Central Ohio, with deep family roots in Caledonia & Marion City. An experienced public folklorist, public historian arts administrator, & documentary artist, Jess worked between arts, culture, history, & historic preservation spaces to grow solidarities between communities, foster spaces for folklife transmission, & nourish expanded arts & culture economies for Marion County.
As Executive Director, Jess managed day-to-day & strategic vision for Marion Voices: including all organizational grant-writing, fundraising, core program development, graphic design & marketing, & lead strategic planning & implementation, in addition to organizational administration. Jess was also Marion Voices‘ folklorist & documentarian: providing photographic, audio, & video documentation both of Marion Voices‘ community work, & lead folklife fieldwork surveys & oral history projects with diverse communities across the county & region.
Beyond Marion Voices, Jess was principal at Caledonia Northern Folk Studios — a folklife, oral history, documentary artists, & historic preservation consultancy serving North-Central Ohio — & works on historic preservation in downtown Caledonia. Jess is currently seeking gainful employment in the cultural, arts, & heritage sectors in the wake of Marion Voices — job opportunities are welcome!
FELLOWSHIPS
Jeff Nagle — Marion Voices 2023-2024 Historian-in-Residence
Trained as a historian of environment, technology, & labor at Swarthmore College & the University of Pennsylvania — with a focus on community environmental justice & energy futures organizing in Southwest Philadelphia & Appalachia — Jeff is an architectural & public historian, photographer, & designer living & working between Philadelphia, Columbus, & the Greater Midwest. A long-time Marion Voices co-curator, Jeff served as Marion Voices‘ inaugural Historian-in-Residence fellow from Spring 2023 to Spring 2024: helping to spearhead Marion Voices‘ Preservation Justice historic preservation accessibility effort, leading research for Marion Voices‘ West Side Black History Ohio Historical Marker nomination, & serving as lead co-curator for Marion Voices‘ July 2024 Marion 1919: Remembering a Lynch Mob, Imagining Repair exhibit. Jeff also serves as deputy graphic designer & lead map-maker for Marion Voices‘ projects & publications.
Beyond his work supporting Marion Voices as a community historian, Jeff is Architectural Historian in the Cultural Resources Group at Mannik & Smith engineering, serving Ohio, Michigan, & surrounds, and is an avid bicyclist, cook, & enjoyer of movies, music, & SF.
CORE COMMUNITY CO-CURATORS
Marion Voices was an open, participatory organization. This list reflects returning community co-curators who, over the past eight years, have returned to grow Marion Voices’ work across multiple projects & opportunities.
Ms. Jessie Thompson — Seamstress. Jewelry-maker. Designer. Civil Rights activist. Queen of Marion County! Born & raised in rural Cataula, Georgia, Ms. Jessie moved to Marion County in her 20s to pursue employment, & became a core organizer in Marion County’s NAACP and its anti-discrimination workplace campaigns. A seasoned fabric, textile, & jewelry artist in the African-wear style, Ms. Jessie runs a successful garment, beadwork, & design business (Ms. Jessie Designs), & has coordinated bridal shows, festivals, & vendor marketplaces in Marion County & across Ohio. She is a core teaching artist with Marion Voices, a long-time Marion Voices co-curator, & coordinates the kids’ area & vendor marketplace for Marion Voices‘ annual Marion Black Joy Summerfest. Beyond Marion Voices, Ms. Jessie works with LifeCare Alliance’s Meals on Wheels programs to keep seniors fed in Marion County.
Ms. Linda Sims — Ms. Linda Sims is a long-time community & cultural organizer, memory-keeper, & radio personality from the West Side of Marion. She is a core convener of the Marion Minority Commission, & is long-time host of “Voice of a People with Ms. Linda Sims” on WWGH: Marion’s community radio station. Ms. Sims served as outgoing Board President of Marion Voices from 2024-2025, and is spearheading efforts to revitalize Marion Black Joy Summerfest under the aegis of the Marion Minority Commission. Stay tuned for more updates from Ms. Sims & MMC about MBJSF!
Ms. Maxine Thomas — with deep family roots in Mississippi, Ms. Maxine Thomas is a dedicated organizer for community memory & racial justice in Marion County. She has been a community co-curator of Marion Voices‘ Marion Black Joy Summerfest since 2022, & has spearheaded corporate sponsorships, fundraising, & outreach along with her best friend, Ms. Jessie Thompson.
Ms. Katie Reese-Hairston — Ms. Katie Reese-Hairston is a beloved Marion County cultural artist working in multiple, intersecting African-American cultural modalities: including crochet traditions, Black foodways & baking, & hair arts. A long-time Marion Voices collaborator & Marion Voices in the Schools teaching artist, Ms. Katie’s work with Marion Voices has included work at all of our Marion Voices school residencies, oral history work, co-curation of our Marion Black History Walking Tour Book, & co-curation & cultual workshops for Marion Black Joy Summerfest.
Ms. Tara Dyer — Ms. Tara Dyer is the backbone of Black cultural arts & heritage organizing in Marion County. A long-time educator with Marion City Schools, Ms. Dyer “retired” to transition to full-time community organizing: including catalytic work with the Black Heritage Council of Marion, Peace & Freedom Committee, board & co-curator service with Marion Voices, & her role as the first Black woman ever elected to the Marion City School Board. Ms. Dyer is a passionate advocate for Black history, Black oratorical opportunities for young people, pathways to the teaching profession for Black youth, housing justice, & an end to structures that produce homelessness & housing insecurity for youth. Her projects include Black Heritage Council’s Umoja: Blight to Beauty housing justice project on the West Side, & the Nia House project for youth experiencing homelessness. Ms. Dyer is a long-time Marion Voices co-curator & founding Marion Voices community scholar. In the wake of Marion Voices‘ dissolution, Black Heritage Council became a major beneficiary of Marion Voices‘ assets — including our physical archives, and remaining cash assets — and BHC is proud to collaborate with the Marion Minority Commission to revitalize & sustain Marion Black Joy Summerfest as an important summer tradition for years to come.
Pastor Jackie Peterson — With deep family roots in Leland, Mississippi, Pastor Jacqueline “Jackie” Peterson is minister at Logos Christian Ministries: a visionary, majority-Black congregation on Marion’s West Side. Since she founded Logos, Pastor Jackie has gone on to become a key figure in community & cultural revitalization for Black communities in Marion, & in the faith landscape. Pastor Jackie successfully fundraised to build Logos’ new health campus on the West Side — which includes a pavillion, basketball courts, & walking trail loop; &, along with Ms. Tara Dyer, she creates the Logos Freedom Riders program: connecting young people of color in Marion County with important civil rights historical sites & HBCU’s across the country. Pastor Jackie is a long-time Marion Voices co-curator & founding Marion Voices community scholar.
Micah Walker — Born& raised in the Detroit suburb of Dearborne, Micah Walker is Arts, Culture, & Education reporter with Bridge News Detroit: Detroit’s non-profit newsroom. A former reporter at the Marion Star, Micah has been involved with Marion Voices since 2021: when she helped cover the first-ever Marion Black Joy Summerfest. Since then, she has contributed to Marion Voices publications, exhibits, & to our annual Marion Black Joy Summerfest at MLK Park: including through facilitating several of the festival’s popular live oral history “narrative stage” themed panel discussions. Micah has relocated back to Detroit, but remains active in Marion Voices leadership, and was a “final” board member duirng the era of Marion Voices‘ dissolution vote.
CORE MARION VOICES TEACHING ARTISTS
Marion Voices serves artists, culture-keepers, & communities across Marion County in several ways: including through our popular Marion Voices in the Schools K-12 Folklife + Cultural Arts Residency program, which partners with Marion County K-12 schools to bring community cultural artists into classrooms as paid artists-in-residence. Our programs & curricula evolve each year. This list reflects recent and/or ongoing Marion Voices teaching artists available to teach in our MVITS programs. Contact us if you’d like to be added to Marion Voices’ roster of local teaching artists! Opportunities & residency curricula vary each year according to needs of partner schools & students, scheduling, & other factors.
Ms. Jessie Thompson — Sewing (African-Wear); Fashion Design; Jewelry (African-American Beadwork): Garfield Elementary (Spring 2022); Marion St. Mary School (Spring 2023); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Pleasant Secondary School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024)
Nicole Boyd — Spoken Word Poetry & Performance; Garfield Elementary (Spring 2022); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024)
Ms. Katie Reese-Hairston — Black Hair Arts, Foodways & Crochet Arts; Garfield Elementary (Spring 2022); Marion St. Mary School (Spring 2023); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Pleasant Secondary School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024)
Ms. Regina Troutman — Foodways Traditions (African-American Soul Food); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024)
Ms. Cindy McGuire — Handmade Stuffed Animals & the Arts of Sewing; Garfield Elementary (Spring 2022); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Pleasant Secondary School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024); outgoing Marion Voices Board Member (2024-2025).
Steve Moore — Songwriting; Marion St. Mary School (Spring 2023); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Pleasant High School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024); past Marion Voices Board Member.
Jeff Nagle — Graphic Design; Oral History Practice; Local History Research; Comics & Graphic Narrative; River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024); Pleasant High School (2023-2024)
Jess Lamar Reece Holler — Documentary Arts, Oral History Practice, Documentary Photography, Exhibit Curation; Garfield Elementary (Spring 2022); Marion St. Mary School (Spring 2023); River Valley Middle School (Spring 2023); Pleasant Secondary School (Spring 2023); Marion St. Mary School (2023-2024); Pleasant High School (2023-2024)
LOCATION
Marion Voices Folklife (2017-2025) was an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit serving Marion County & the expanded North-Central Ohio community. As such, we work out of many locations: including community parks, our K-12 school partner sites, & cultural spaces across the community.
While we loved in-person activities & gatherings, our work also centered disability justice & accessibility in our programs. In wintertime & during the ongoing pandemic, we also made efforts to provide web-based programming to provide accessible options for community connection & solidarity-building across geographic distances, while reducing burdens of travel, child- & elder-care, & risks of transmission of airborne illness. We met outdoors whenever possible to help make our events safer & more accessible for all involved. Marion Voices worked hard to have N95 & KN94 masks & hand sanitizer available for all in-person events, & provide HEPA filters for all indoor events; and we are proud to have passed these supplies on to donor organizations like Marion Public Health & United Way of North-Central Ohio as part of our dissolution.
DISABILITY JUSTICE MATTERS!
CONTACT
Marion Voices Folklife + Oral History
marionvoicesfolklife [at] gm*il [dot] com
or via contact form on this webpage
Note: Marion Voices sunset in Winter 2025. We still will make efforts to monitor our email; but response times may be slow.
