Marcyliena H. MORGAN

MORGAN, Marcyliena H. Of Newton, Massachusetts, passed away on Sunday, September 28, at the age of 75. She was born on May 8, 1950, in Chicago, Illinois. Marcyliena was one of six daughters born to Henry O. Morgan and Juliette V. Morgan (now deceased), who created a home filled with cooking virtuosity, music, cultural pride, educational achievement, and a commitment to social justice and activism.

Marcyliena completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Illinois Chicago, a Master's from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, and her Ph.D. In Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned tenure in the Anthropology Department at UCLA. She also held a tenured faculty appointment at Stanford University in the Department of Communications. Ultimately, she served as a Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University where she held the title of Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences.

Marcyliena founded and directed the pioneering Hiphop Archive and Research Institute, a unit of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The Hiphop Archive and Research Institute is dedicated to excellence in the production, study, and preservation of the global cultural, artistic, and material influence of Hiphop. Marcyliena dedicated special attention to urban youth as creative agents, musical and artistic innovators, critics of social injustice, and drivers of social change; to women in Hiphop; and to Hiphop as a vehicle for communication about issues of health, politics, and social injustice.

She authored three books: "Language, Discourse, and Power in African American Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2002)," "The Real Hiphop: Battling for Knowledge, Power, and Respect in the LA Underground (Duke University Press 2009)," and "Speech Communities part of the prestigious Cambridge University Press series Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology (2014)." She also co-edited "Language and the Social Construction of Identity in Creole Situations (UCLA,

Center for African American Studies, 1994)." Marcyliena published numerous articles and delivered significant lectures at the University of Oslo and her Ph.D. alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania.

Marcyliena had many wider involvements. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Applied Linguistics. She was an Advisory Board member of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. In her youth she was active in the anti-Apartheid movement in Chicago and later during her graduate studies in the UK, where she also joined in women's rights and racial justice protests.

Marcyliena was a lover of ideas and intellectual exchange; of art, music and creative expression; of cooking as calling, cultural rootedness, and social glue; and an ardent voice for social justice. She moved through life with an iridescent spirit, a wit, an unforgettable sense of humor, penetrating human insight, and a rare capacity for community building. One of her great loves was cooking sumptuous multi-course meals for family and friends. She will long be remembered as the inventor of "It's Not Over Yet," a legendary Saturday after Thanksgiving gala feast and celebration of fellowship and community. Marcy devoted much energy to

engagement with her nieces, nephews, and many mentees, students and acolytes.

Her loved ones would like to thank the staff at Rogerson House and especially the nurses and doctors at the Faulkner Hospital for the exemplary care and compassion they showed in Marcyliena's final days.

She is survived by her husband of 28 years, Lawrence D. Bobo; three sisters, Madeline Morgan, Muzette Morgan and Marla Jackson; her ever-present nieces Jenigh Garrett, Jessica Norwood and Autumn Morgan-Jones; and her God-daughters, C. Brooke Minters and Sumeeya Chisty Mujahid.