These Memphis-based professional storytellers, journalists, photographers, and illustrators are creating pieses that will document and reflect on local experiences and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal is to show the creative ways individuals and arts organizations have and continue to respond to a global experience at the local level. Thanks to generous funding from the Tennessee Arts Commission, these commissioned pieces will be published in the Spring and Summer editions of the Quarterly Magazine.

Mikhaila Markham is a multimedia artist who has been making and sharing on the internet since her first YouTube channel at age thirteen. Today, her work spans many mediums, from graphic design and illustration to scriptwriting and animation. When she’s not sharing stories online, you might find Mikhaila petting dogs, baking sweets, and wandering around her neighborhood. 

Timothy “Urban Thoughts” Moore is a heavily awarded spoken word artist and published writer who loves to educate and inspire. One of the most brilliant minds in the Mid-South, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a Project Based Learning Summer Colloquium XQ cohort which led to his new outlook on incorporating writing as therapy to create solutions to social justice issues. Urban Thoughts is a Watering Hole Graduate Fellow from the Cave Canem of the South Writing Fellowship and holds both a Master’s of Arts in Teaching: Instruction of Curriculum Design and a BA in English: Concentration/Creative Writing from The University of Memphis. He is a proud recipient of The United States of America Congressional Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for Outstanding Service in Education and Community Service.

Jeremie Serrano is a self-taught artist and vegan chef currently living in Memphis, TN, originally born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and raised in New England. His main goal is to share content that highlights the communities he is a part of, like being Latinx and queer, and he uses his upbringing and culture as inspiration for his creations. You can find Jeremie creating illustrations that many can relate to with quirky characters and often referencing Puerto Rican culture or making delicious recipes for the everyday cook.You can learn more and connect with Jeremie on his ​Website​​, ​Instagram platform​ , and YouTube channel.

Martha Park is a writer and illustrator from Memphis, Tennessee. She received an MFA from the Jackson Center for Creative Writing at Hollins University, and was the Spring 2016 Philip Roth Writer-in-Residence at Bucknell University’s Stadler Center for Poetry. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, Guernica, The Bitter Southerner, Granta, ProPublica, and elsewhere.

Pedro Acevedo is a communications professional currently working as an Internal Communications Specialist for MAA and an Associate Editor for La Prensa Latina Bilingual News. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, he is now a proud Memphis transplant. When he isn’t writing, Pedro enjoys traveling, trying new hot sauces and spending time with his two adopted dachshunds, Honey and Missy.

Jamie Harmon is a Memphis-based photographer with decades of experience in documenting both found objects and human subjects through film and digital media. A visual anthropologist, Harmon’s photographs have been featured in the New York Times, CBS News, Bitter Southerner and Memphis Magazine. His latest project “Quarantine Memphis” offers an intimate, early record of life during the 2020 global pandemic through showcasing home-bound notable local figures and everyday Memphians. Through portraiture, the images document Memphis residents’ shared isolation anxieties and bonds renewed by survival, hope and solidarity. His other work includes an ongoing portable studio called “Amurica,” a renovated midcentury Airstream trailer lit with bright, whimsical props that help visitors come alive with color in the shutter. Grounded in an exploration of place from community to individual to object, Harmon’s work breathes in a sincere interest in capturing human emotion and character as story.


Tennessee Arts Commission logo
Funding for this project made possible by the Tennessee Arts Commission’s COVID-19 Arts Resilience Grants.

Please consider a one-time or reoccurring donation to help StoryBoard with this important project:


What does your license plate say about you?
Pandemic Responses is also supported by the Tennessee Specialty License Plate Program