Artist, writer and self-proclaimed “cultural pollinator,” Marie T. Cochran was born and raised in the Georgia Mountains. Cochran received degrees from the University of Georgia (BFA) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (MFA). She is included in Southern Women: More than 100 Stories of Innovators, Artists, and Icons (Harper Collins 2019). She was the 2020-2022 Lehman Brady Visiting Professor at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies. Cochran is the founding curator of the Affrilachian Artist Project which celebrates the intersection of cultures in Appalachia.

www.affrilachiastudio.com

Image credit: Congregation of Mount Zion AME Zion Church, in Cullowhee, CA, ca 1920. Front row: Alfred Coward, Lena Davis, Lewis Rogers, Mary Lowry, Joe Brown, Dorthey Allen. Middle row: Gabe Hooper, Wilburn MacDonald, Josephine Rogers, George Love, Laura Hooper, Wilson Lowry, Julie Johnson, Bowman Davis. Back row: Rev. George Griffin, Mary Neal (church sponsored school teacher), Wilson Rogers, Clercy Coward, Hattie Love. 

Image courtesy of Hallie Lackie.