Missing History of Massillon Committee

Marva L. Dodson

Historian, CHARISMA

Marva L. (Bell-Jones) Dodson is a native Massillonian, and curator of the CHARISMA exhibit and collection.

She was employed as an Operating Room Nurse at Aultman and an office nurse at the former Canton Orthopaedics, Inc. (Spectrum). Dodson retired as the Health Coordinator for Massillon's Public Preschool Program and the School Clinic Nurse at Franklin Elementary School. Her many areas of community volunteerism have included the board and executive committees of the Massillon YWCA and Habitat for Humanity of Massillon, Ohio, Inc; membership on the boards of Massillon's Affinity Medical Center Board of Directors (2007-2017); Community Hospice of Stark & Tuscarawas Counties; and Washington High School Alumni Assn.

Her committee service includes the Washington High School Distinguished Citizens and Scholarship Committees; Stark County Health Department Medical Reserve Corp; Massillon Chapter of the NAACP; and the Urban League of Greater Stark County. A member of St. James A.M.E. Zion Church of Massillon, she serves on the board's executive committee, is a Life Member of the Board of Deaconess, and is President of the Senior Usher Board.

Her areas of interest include researching the history of African Americans in Stark County with emphasis on the contributions of African Americans in Massillon, Ohio. She exhibits her "CHARISMA" collection (Contributions of Historic African-Americans whose Roots and Influence are Significant to the Massillon Area).

Dodson received the ABCD, Inc. 2012 "Lifetime Achievement" Award and was the recipient of the “Mayor’s 2019 Senior Citizen Award” (Massillon), and the One Tiger, Inc. 2019 “Heritage Award”. Mrs. Dodson is the proud mother of Celeste M. Jones of Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

Amber Ford

Photographer

Amber N. Ford will be contributing to the Missing History of Massillon project with contemporary portraits of interviewees and community members.

Ford is an artist and freelance photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio. She holds a BFA in Photography from the Cleveland Institute of Art. Ford’s work in portraiture has gained national notoriety appearing in publication such as The Atlantic and Washington Post, and she has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, the Kent State University Museum, Transformer Station, SPACES Gallery, Youngstown State University, and more.

Ford's work explores Blackness, identity and culture while questioning the accepted idealized conceptualization of “truth”. Ford describes her artistic practice as a “collaborative engagement between photographer and sitter,” wherein she, the photographer, establishes a platform to which the sitter constructs themselves. This allows the sitter to show up how they would like to be seen, unapologetically, and engages them in the conversation her works prompts.

Amber N. Ford was a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in 2017, and selected as a 2019 Gordon Square Arts District Artist-In-Residence for her outstanding achievements in photography. Her community-based photographic mural, “This Story is Mines and Ours” is located along the north wall of the Gordon Square Arcade on Alger Court. Ford is a 2022 MOCA Cleveland Artist-in-Residence where she is exploring the duality of dying and healing. She is also the Space Activation Curator at Thirdspace Action Lab (TSAL), a grassroots research, strategy, and design cooperative located in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland, OH, where she participates in creating the vision, scope and execution of TSAL creative programs, projects and initiatives.

Alex in MassMu's Immel Circus_smaller.jpg

Alexandra Nicholis Coon

MassMu Executive Director

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