The Road Less Traveled: An Ode to the Green Book | CC Mercer Watson

Inspired by Watson’s cross-country trek to deliver artwork to SooVAC for Untitled 18, and her favorite movie of all time, The Wiz, she blends the radical grit of Negro travelers, guided by The Green Book, and that of The Emerald City, a coveted destination, as each person who begins their odyssey must navigate new territory and find their way home. A journey depicted in vivid color through various textile and quilting techniques. Storytelling and poetry play an essential role in Watson’s creative endeavors. THE GREEN BOOK OF POEMS by CC Mercer Watson is a collection that inspired and will accompany her exhibition. It documents the hopes, dreams, disappointments, and joys directly related to life in the South and traveling on the road, stateside, or abroad. This collection also celebrates black life, love, grief, and expectations of respect. THE GREEN BOOK OF POEMS is dedicated to those who take the road less traveled.

Southern Black womanhood is the lens that CC Mercer Watson conjures and creates from. She utilizes theatre, poetry, and textiles to communicate cultural messages geared towards justice-led work to exemplify survival, liberation, and healing for those who bear witness. The core of her work explores the origins of Pan African textiles, in their raw and processed forms, and how each cord connects to the historical context of African peoples and peoples of African descent.

CC prefers to work by hand when stitching or piecing a garment or quilt in real time. When writing, poems, books, or for the stage, she likes to use rhyme, free verse, and various literary structures to generate labyrinths of curiosity about the characters and their world … which is most often her own, parallel to her lived experience, or an empathic call and response to the lived experiences of others. In every facet of her existence, her craft plays a critical role in relationships and how she documents the epic history of humanity. Identity is a key factor in her storytelling, too. The mediums translated from her connections to culture, activism, and narratives of class, gender, and color. Her work is radical, raw, painful, and provocative, while simultaneously appealing and inviting to the senses. Joy is her resistance, too, and her being honors current and evolving Black culture, as well as the long spiritual memory of her ancestors.

About the Artist:
CC MERCER WATSON is a magnetic gem from Little Rock, Arkansas. She has a kaleidoscope of talent that includes being a Textile Artist, Actor, Activist, Poet, Playwright, Published Author (A Love Story Waiting To Happen, Butterfly Typeface Publishing, 2018, and From Cotton to Silk: The Magic of Black Hair, Et Alia Press, 2021), Found(her) and Executive Director of A BLACK SPACE, a nonprofit that serves and liberates Black folks through culture bearing, oral tradition, ancestral craft, design and consultation, and Lead Designer and Merchant of Mercer Textile Mercantile, a fiber business that merges farm-to-fashion and fine art which expresses current and evolving Black culture…those passions being a conduit for uplifting voices of color and making marginalized populations visible. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts and Dance from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and is a graduate of the Clinton School with a Master’s in Public Service. She has performed on international stages in theatre houses and recites poetry. She has exhibited work at The Studio Accra (Accra, Ghana), SOO Visual Arts Center (Minneapolis, MN), Thea Foundation (North Little Rock, Arkansas), and at M2 Gallery (Little Rock, AR), where her visual art career is represented. A dedicated public servant, a woman of many creative talents, and the daughter of legendary late civil rights lawyer, Attorney Christopher C. Mercer, Jr., she honors her father's legacy by using artistic mediums for empowerment, education, and radical justice. Watson was named 2025 Artist of the Year at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center.

Image: Artist Portrait - photo credit Quincy Watson