Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I aim to explore the meanings and makings in and of liberatory insurgency. I’m a 2023 MAP Fund micro grantee recipient, and 2022 Foundation for the Arts ER grant for blk ark. My 2024 film, Sugar in the Raw, is a surrealist-inspired exploration of Black intimacy, trust, and touch. In 2021, including the City of Chicago Esteemed Artist Awardee in Dance, I received a 3Arts Award. My Afro Sci-fi Krump film Imprints & Traces, and multi-disciplinary ensemble performance BAM!, received a CSF Generative Performing Artist Fellowship. BAM! focuses on Blackness, Amerikkka, and violence. My work, the mixtape series violent/break vol i and vol ii, continues receiving national and international development support including Elastic Arts (Chicago), and Depo (Istanbul). I am an active culture bearer of Hip-hop and House, with my B.F.A. from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and M.A. from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

While at Headlands

While at Headlands I will be developing my current multi-modal work, “blk ark: the impossible manifestation.” Time will be spent exploring the role of physical theater in the works live performance, composing experimental post punk hip hop sonics, and devising text for a large scale self-lead public installation. I’m looking forward to uncovering more of the emphatic elements within my practice, after an extended research period focused on technical structure.

Work Samples

the impossible manifestation. work in progress film. 55th & S. Michigan Ave. Chicago.editor/director/cinematographer: cat mahari. performers: Jarius King and Ale Wolf.

the impossible manifestation. work in progress live performance. MCA-Chicago. sound/visual designer and choreographer/performer: cat mahari.

Imprints & Traces. Kansas City Museum. editor/director: cat mahari. performers: Gool and Vendetta

producer/director/performer: Concoction of Colour cat mahari aka mighty mississippi; dfex; CJ the Blax Attack. director/editor: motus cinema.