Thomas Sayers Ellis, the acclaimed American poet, photographer, educator, and bandleader, has passed away. He was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where his love for art, language, and community first took root and eventually flourished into a vibrant, interdisciplinary career that left a lasting mark on American letters and Black artistic expression.
A graduate of Dunbar High School, Ellis went on to receive his M.F.A. from Brown University in 1995. But long before degrees, Ellis was already changing the literary landscape. In 1988, he co-founded the Dark Room Collective in Cambridge, Massachusetts—a literary incubator that would nurture a new generation of Black poets and writers. It was there that Ellis began building not just a legacy of verse, but a cultural movement.
His poetry, known for its resistance to limitation and its embrace of wholeness, appeared in AGNI, Callaloo, Grand Street, Tin House, and Harvard Review, and was featured in The Best American Poetry multiple times. He was the author of acclaimed collections such as The Maverick Room and Skin, Inc., both of which demonstrated his fearless experimentation with form, language, and identity.
Beyond the page, Ellis was a bandleader and founding member of Heroes Are Gang Leaders, a group that fused poetry, jazz, and Black musical traditions into an electrifying, genre-defying sound. Known in the Go-Go music circuit as “Stix,” Ellis was a timbale player for the Petworth Band and remained deeply connected to his D.C. roots through rhythm and performance.
His teaching career was equally impactful. Ellis taught at Case Western Reserve University, Bennington College, and Sarah Lawrence College, where his students remember him as a passionate and provocative mentor who challenged the boundaries of creative expression.
In recent years, Ellis also established himself as a profound visual thinker. As a photographer and essayist, he served as the photo-laureate of St. Petersburg, Florida, and contributed a groundbreaking series of essays to the Arrowsmith Journal that reimagined the relationship between image and identity. His photographic work, described by author Askold Melnyczuk as “some of the most original thinking about photography since Sontag’s On Photography,” offered intimate, searing glimpses into Black culture and life.
Tributes have poured in across social media and the arts community. Michelle Grandy wrote, “His words, his lens, his presence changed how we saw D.C., Black culture and ourselves. Thank you for living your art out loud. Your legacy is unforgettable.”
Musician Genevieve Cruz recalled meeting him in the Go-Go scene: “What a wonderful spirit and truly gifted brother. I have always cherished the photo he took at a Bela Dona show. RIP 💜”
Friend Bink McGowan shared: “One thing you knew about Stix was that he was always hungry for knowledge, always had a backpack… Our 7th and O NW fam has lost another one.”
Thomas Sayers Ellis leaves behind not only an indelible body of work, but a living archive of sound, sight, and soul. He was a poet who sounded like no one else, a photographer who revealed the unseen, and a mentor who lit paths for countless others.
He will be deeply missed by friends, collaborators, students, and all those who were moved by his voice and vision.
Rest in power, Thomas Sayers Ellis. Your light endures.