536 Words

Terresa Moses is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown communities through art and design. As a designer and illustrator, her work focuses primarily on race, identity, and social justice. She advocates for positive change in her community using creativity as tools of community activism and organizing like her solo intersectional exhibition, Umbra, and her community distro project, Stop Killing Black People. She intentionally create spaces and support initiatives in which members of the academic and broader community might challenge their own positionality in the context of oppression and understand through a cross-disciplinary lens how their personal experiences and biases affect their outcomes.

Moses’ work supports and is inspired by racial activist movements. She uses design and illustration to communicate messaging that activates community and inspires positive change. Her passion for design and racial justice has provided her with the opportunity to be a part of creative and innovative brands, projects, and campaigns from print, film, and interaction design. As the Creative Director of Blackbird Revolt— a social justice-based design studio— she uses design innovation to further Black liberatory and abolitionist efforts. Because of the identities she holds and her scholarship within areas of identity, she is compelled to support projects which validate and uncover systemic and institutional racism through her creative work.

In continuing her anti-racist work within the academy, she is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design and African American Studies in 2008 and her Master of Fine Arts in Design Research and Anthropology in 2015 from the University of North Texas. As a life-long learner, she is now a PhD candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto exploring how the movement for Black lives in Minneapolis might influence the curricular foundation of graphic design education. With Black liberation as a core mission of her academic work, the courses she creates and teaches engage students in anti-racism and anti-oppressive frameworks. As a community engaged scholar, her design research interests include; Project Naptural — which creates spaces to educate, connect, and empower Black women about their natural hair and self-identity— and Racism Untaught— a curriculum model that reveals ‘racialized’ design and helps students, educators, and organizations create anti-racist design approaches through the design research process. She has multiple publications including two books published by MIT Press, Racism Untaught and An Anthology of Blackness.

She currently serves historically underrepresented and underinvested communities by planning Black liberatory protests, drafting abolitionist policy, and using design as a tool for mass communication and movement unification. She is currently a community partner and collaborator with Black Liberation Lab— an organization which co-creates solutions to support Black liberation.

Previously, she served on the executive committee of the Duluth NAACP as the 2nd Vice President, Young Adult Committee Chair, and Charter Advisor to the UMD NAACP Chapter. She also served on the board of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, on the board of AIGA Minnesota as the Director of Diversity & Inclusion, and as a core team member of the African American Graphic Designers.

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Terresa Moses is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown communities through art and design. As a designer and illustrator, her work focuses primarily on race, identity, and social justice. She advocates for positive change in her community using creativity as tools of community activism and organizing like her solo intersectional exhibition, Umbra, and her community distro project, Stop Killing Black People.

Terresa is the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt, a social justice-based design studio. She is also an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. As a community engaged scholar, her design research interests include; Project Naptural, which creates spaces to educate, connect, and empower Black women about their natural hair and self-identity, and Racism Untaught, a curriculum model that reveals ‘racialized’ design and helps students, educators, and organizations create anti-racist concepts through the design research process. She has multiple publications including two books through MIT Press, Racism Untaught and An Anthology of Blackness.

She earned her BFA in Fashion Design and African American Studies at the University of North Texas in 2008. In 2015, she earned her MFA in Design Research and Anthropology. She is currently a PhD candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. 

As a community organizer, she serves on the advisory board of the Black Liberation Lab to co-create solutions that support Black liberation.

115 Words

Terresa Moses is a proud Black queer woman dedicated to the liberation of Black and brown people through art and design. She uses creativity as tools of community activism like her solo exhibition, Umbra, and her community distro project, Stop Killing Black People. She created Project Naptural and co-created Racism Untaught. She has published two books, Racism Untaught and An Anthology of Blackness.

Moses is the Creative Director at Blackbird Revolt and an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design and the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota. She is currently a PhD candidate in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. She serves on the advisory board of the Black Liberation Lab.