SPRING RESIDENCY SHOWCASE 2025

Olivia Dorsey Peacock is a family historian, poet, and tea maven whose work focuses on authentic, creative engagements with Black history, memory, and archives. She holds Bachelors and Masters degrees in Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her writing, she dissects the lineage of expectation, re-imagines ancestral memory, and measures the contours of legacy.

Her project, “the table is prepared for you,” envisions a series of imagined poetic conversations with herself and four of her maternal great grandmothers over tea. Through handcrafted tea blends and poetry, she explores the women’s fears, dreams, and experiences, offering a quiet space to reflect on what they left behind. Moving beyond traditional research questions, she asks what rituals these women engaged in to support their own happiness. During this residency, she explored memory through found objects, oral histories, aroma, and taste, crafting an intimate, multi-sensory experience. She uses tea to ground these ephemeral conversations,as an offering of gratitude to her female ancestors, and as an invitation for others to join these sacred conversations.

She extends heartfelt gratitude to Goodyear Arts, with deep appreciation for Erin Rose Coffin, Renee Cloud, Dana White, Anna Kenar, her co-residents, Jordan Bailey and Rusty Colton, and countless friends, family, and colleagues.