Chris Omni

Why FSU?

This is a great question with a funny answer. I selected FSU because it was one of three schools in the nation that had a PhD program to fit my husband’s interest (Creative Writing) and mine. Well, I should add my “first” interest. After earning an MPH, I wanted to focus on Health Communication, and FSU has a great School of Communication. However, during orientation week, my spirit realigned and connected with the Department of Art Education. I followed my heart and changed my major. Additionally, I was interested in relocating to a city that had a significantly greater Black population than my hometown, Topeka, Kansas, which has a 10 percent Black population versus 35 percent in Tallahassee, Florida.

Motivation to pursue a graduate degree

To be honest…I still don’t know. I am a non-traditional student with over twenty years experience in the field of health promotion. Plus, I already hold two graduate degrees. So, I can’t fully answer this question other than to say that the Universe guided me to FSU and opened the doors to Art Education. Through listening to this Divine inner voice, I am now discovering more about myself and my calling.

Importance and impact of research

My research activates a new conversation about what is right with Black womxn rather than perpetuating the typical deficit narrative that tends to surround my Sista Queens. Not only is that narrative tired, it is tiring. For example, coming from a background of public health, we know that Black womxn are 42 percent more likely to die from cancer, 60 percent more likely to be diabetic, and over 80 percent of us are overweight. But what the media and research is not telling you is that 100 percent of us have stories of joy! Through the methodologies of photo elicitation and narrative inquiry, I collect and share stories of “Black Joy in Green Spaces.”

Accomplishments during graduate school

Awards: 2020 School of Communication Leadership Award; 2021 Ada Belle Winthrop-King Visual Arts Endowment. Scholarship: 2020 and 2021 Dr. Mary L. Pankowski Returning Student Endowment Fund Scholarship. Grant: Mickee Faust Club's "Actual Lives" Event (Intention board workshop for Black womxn)

Conference and Presentations: Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Health Justice Symposium Workshop leader; FSU’s Social Justice Symposium Presenter; University of Arizona’s Emerging Conversations Workshop Leader, National Organization of Health and Art Conference Presenter, Halisi Africa’s Joy-Teenth Workshop Presenter; Walking as Art International Conference in Prespa, Greece (Presenter and upcoming Publication); International Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry Conference Presenter. Created a short documentary that was selected for screening at the Denton Black Film Festival -T. J.(True Joy) Collections; “Divorcing the Dominant Black Baptist Narrative” selected for publication in an upcoming anthology “Mamas, Martyrs, and Jezebels”; Completed an Artist-in-Residency at the Elsewhere Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina; FSU 2020 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) Finalist; FSU 2021 3MT First Place Winner; The NIA Project’s Black Women Get Fit Pre-Conference presenter, opening speaker, and workshop leader (Kansas City, Missouri); University of Kansas’s 2021 TEDx Conference Speaker; Florida State University’s 2022 TEDx Conference Speaker; Completed a solo, cross-country spiritual sojourn from Florida to Nevada and back.

Advice for prospective graduate students

I have three solid pieces of advice starting with honor your space and time. Your health and happiness are more important than school. ALWAYS put your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health first. Got it? Secondly, find or create a tribe even if it is the more-than-humankind. Graduate school is demanding and it can also be lonely. Find someone to talk to. Trees are great listeners. Lastly, keep a bottle of red or white wine on standby. There will be those nights when you just need to sip slow.

Career aspirations

During a series of visits from luna moths, I received a Divine assignment that called me to “create and hold spaces of healing and self-restoration.” (That’s a beautiful story that I’ll share during another time.) To answer that call, I will open a community-based school, Mother Earth Academy, that provides ample opportunities for people to spend time in and with green spaces. Outside of my Divine assignment is a goal to expand my research on Black Joy in Green Spaces by traveling across the country and asking Black womxn to simple questions: 1) What brings you True Joy? and 2) What is it like to have me ask you about True Joy? This aspiration can be achieved through the creation of a unique postdoctoral program that involves multiple Universities in the Southern Graduate Schools’ system. Since I have your attention, Florida State University, would you like to be the first school to say yes to this idea?