Meet Morgan Love, a Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellow
Morgan Love, a Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellow, shares about her life, passions and what drew her to the fellowship.
By Kennedy London
An artist, despite often prioritizing one artistic avenue, always ponders on other creative outlets. Morgan Love, a writer hailing from Jackson, Mississippi, also turns her gaze towards photography as a way of expression. Love’s interest in photography intensified during a photography class at Loyola University. One of her photos for said class ended up on NOLA.com for an article covering The Camellia Grill, a famous New Orleans restaurant. Once she experienced that, Morgan recognized the power of her work.
“I feel accomplished and very proud of myself for that,” Love said. “That kind of opened up a lot of doors and a lot of new insights — like photography is something that I could do.”
Love, 20, is currently pursuing a major in Psychology and a minor in English. Love enjoys writing poetry and helping the community in several ways, including her work-study for the New Neighbor Project, a New Orleans non-profit organization helping immigrants with education and citizenship, and in the after school program at the Holy Name of Jesus Elementary school. A graduate of the Mississippi School of the Arts, Love strives for absolute authenticity and multiplicity when it comes to her work.
Lede New Orleans trains creatives to make equitable media that inspires and informs our city. What does equitable media in New Orleans look like to you?
Well, I’ll start by saying I’m not from New Orleans, I am from Mississippi. But the cultures here are very similar. And I feel a very close connection with New Orleans. So, to see equitable media, I want to see media that is inclusive, and reflective of the culture and the people that live in New Orleans.
What do you hope to get out of your fellowship?
Lede New Orleans just seemed like the perfect place to individually hone in on my crafts and skills that I want to focus on, which would be writing, photography, videography. So, I think that I just want to better myself, and better myself as an artist and a creative.
How important is freedom when it comes to writing or just the arts in general?
I think freedom is the most important thing when it comes to producing art, creating art, being an artist, being creative because without freedom, what room do you have to think outside the box? What room do you have to do something different, and experiment with your art and, you know, create the things that are lasting and legendary?
Imagine it’s a perfect sunny and cool fall day in New Orleans. What will we find you doing?
Honestly, in my room. I go to class and I leave class and I go back to my room to relax and I go back to my home. You can sometimes find me in Audubon Park. I love going to Audubon when I want to get outside and see some beautiful scenery. I love the history that’s tied to Audubon. The trees, and how old they look — like looking at living history.
Kennedy London, 24 is a journalist born and raised in New Orleans. London studied English at Morehouse College and served as arts and entertainment editor at college newspaper, The Maroon Tiger.
This article is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read Lede New Orleans’ publishing guidelines here.
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