TARA AISHA WILLIS

Tara Aisha Willis, Ph.D. is a dance artist, independent curator, and writer. She is Curator-in-Residence at EMPAC, Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Lecturer in Theater and Performance Studies at University of Chicago. She most recently served as Curator of Performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for six years and previously as a programmer at Movement Research, where she founded the Artists of Color Council. Her writings appear in publications by Getty Research Institute, Danspace Project, Center for Book Arts, The Black Scholar, University of Illinois Press, Women & Performance, Performance Research, Brooklyn Rail, Movement Research Performance Journal, Wendy’s Subway, and Soberscove Press. She has performed for Will Rawls, Jasmine Hearn, devynn emory, Kim Brandt, Yanira Castro, Paulina Olowska, Anna Sperber, and others, and her own choreographic work has been shown at spaces like The Poetry Project, Links Hall, Movement Research at Judson Church, Center for Performance Research, and Roulette Intermedium.