Cat Mahari
Fall 2021 Co-MISSION Artist-in-Residence
Photo by Larissa Johnson
Cat Mahari’s arts practice is built from a richly layered body history, stemming from an archive of research, and physical training with the intent of manifesting an intellectual, material and informal grammar of liberation via documentation, video, film, and live performance. Through an examination of personal cultural markers and social genealogies, she explores the in-between of inner and outer environments. Hip Hop, concomitant with other Black street dance social-geographies, fuels her practice, analysis, and articulation. She is a daughter with much of her mother.
PROJECTS AT LINKS HALL
Blk Ark: the Impossible Manifestation | June 2022
Blk Ark: the Impossible Manifestation asks: “With every step, we ask, ‘What will it take to get free?’ and ‘Can we see a new world from here?’ This short work-in-progress presented at Co-Mission is part of a multi-modal project.
View the performance recording here.
Artist Credits
Lighting: Giau Truong
Choreography/Sound Design/Video Projection: Cat Mahari
Poetry: Alano P. Bae
Ẹsẹ̀ntáyé | December 2021
Ẹsẹ̀ntáyé, meaning “touch the feet to the earth,” comes from a Yoruba ceremony wherein a baby’s destiny is revealed and the child’s feet will touch the earth for the first time. I choose a destiny of marronage, which is both a fugitive movement from bondage and the creation of an alternative world - a journey of the outside. Vamos!! We go towards an anarchic destiny in the wildstyle of Blk liberation.
Artist Credits
Choreographer & Performer: Cat Mahari
Sound Design: Cat Mahari
Lighting Design: Ricki Jay
Music (original/sampled):Cat Mahari, Ricanstruction
Costume Design: Cat Mahari
Blk Ark: the Impossible Manifestation. Photos by Elisabeth Seanwoo.
