Courtesy Morris Family
A & C
My friends are likely tired of hearing the story after countless retellings this week, but it’s how I want to remember my friend Shontez “Taz” Morris: While driving along Marcy Street in downtown Santa Fe some months ago, a friend of mine remarked, “Ohmygod—it’s Taz!” Rolling down the window, we began shouting stuff about how we love her, and there, in the street, Shontez spent nearly a minute screaming compliments and practically dancing. In that moment, like so many others, Taz was pure kindness and light. I will miss her dearly.
Morris died at 42 in the wee hours of Thursday, March 17 from complications related to asthma. According to longtime friend and co-worker at Security Asset Solutions, Kate Kennedy, Morris wasn’t feeling well during a security shift at a Meow Wolf concert earlier in the night. Later, at home, Morris called 911 when she started having trouble breathing, but paramedics didn’t make it in time. Morris had largely recovered from a bout with COVID-19 a few months ago, yet her asthma had worsened afterward, Kennedy said.
Morris grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn where, her brother Andrew Morris tells SFR, she attended the Boys and Girls High School. She graduated in 1996, and loved the school, Andrew says, noting how he found a pristine book bag from the institution as he was clearing out his sister’s apartment this week. Even as a kid, he continues, Morris was a shining example of kindness and positivity.
“We had our disagreements here and there, but we were always very close,” he says. “Even recently, we’d still act like when we were 10 or 12 years old when we were together. I think that’s what I’ll miss most.”
Morris would briefly attend Virginia State University, but she’d return home after a semester to become a state corrections officer in New York. That job ultimately left her feeling unfulfilled according to brother Andrew, but the death of their uncle and the subsequent discovery of an entire book’s worth of fashion designs he never got to create sparked a love of art in Taz that persisted until her death. She moved to Atlanta to live with her aunt Janice Fagan after that where she worked private security and became interested in murals. Fagan tells SFR that’s where Taz befriended Santa Fe artist/musician Aaron Kalaii while working on one such mural, then relocated to Santa Fe in 2013.
“It actually started in Atlanta,” Fagan notes, “but she relocated to Santa Fe because the art community was easier for her to become a part of.”
For other Santa Feans who’ll miss Morris, this move was a godsend.
“Shontez was a gentle warrior and our very own hugging saint,” says writer and reiki practitioner Tintawi Kaigziabiher. “Her medicine was to show up and show love. Her presence was the ointment that healed our woes. Her vibration anointed each of us.”
Courtesy Kate Kennedy
A & C
Friend Kate Kennedy says Shontez "Taz" Morris would have loved to know a story featured a photo of her in costume.“My events will never be the same without her beautiful bright presence,” says Jared Antonio-Justo Trujillo of downtown gallery KEEP Contemporary, where Morris would sometimes work security during events. “Everyone loved her. I’ll miss her hugs and her enthusiasm for the arts, but most of all I’ll miss my friend.”
Morris was, of course, a creator herself—a painter, storyteller and freelance fried chicken cook; a curator who organized shows for artists she loved and an artist who presided over exhibitions of her own work. Her appearance at Raashan Ahmad’s I Got a Story To Tell speaker series in 2020 remains a prime example of the type of person she was, and 2019′s Love Light and Awakening exhibit at Meow Wolf found Taz beaming with pride. Morris also worked countless events around town, sat on the board of Santa Fe’s Human Rights Alliance and Leadership Santa Fe and, somehow, touched more lives than even seems humanly possible.
Her true artistry, then, might have been in how she made the people around her feel. Anyone who ever received a hug from Taz knows exactly what I mean, and many were the times I’d find a message online that read simply “Taz hugz!” Somehow, these always came when I needed them most.
“There was one specific incident when my mom was hospitalized for MS reasons, and Shontez beat me to the hospital,” Kennedy recalls. “And she sat in that waiting room. I don’t know how long she was there, but I know she didn’t leave until my mom was discharged—and she didn’t think anything of it. The way that she operated in the world was...everybody was family unless proven otherwise. The way that everybody knew and loved her, she knew and loved everybody.”
“I’m just glad she was able to come out here and be a positive influence, a positive reflection,” brother Andrew says. “I’m still so proud of her, and what’s keeping me sane is just knowing that she did some real great work out here. I’m just so proud of the life my sister lived.”
Celebrating the Life of Shontez Morris:
Memorial Service: 1 pm Tuesday, March 29. Free. Rivera Family Funeral Home, 417 E Rodeo Road, (505) 989-7032
Dance Party: 8 pm Tuesday, March 29. Free. Meow Wolf, 1352 Rufina Circle, (505) 395-6369
A Gofundme campaign is raising funds for funeral costs. Any extra money will go toward scholarships at Brooklyn’s Boys and Girl’s High School and to the Santa Fe HRA and Leadership Santa Fe.
