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Image description: A headshot of a Black person of African descent with brown skin, very low hair cut, and black square earrings in their ear. Her upper body is in profile, and head is looking towards the camera. They are wearing a sweatshirt with aquamarine trimming, followed by white on the neck collar, and aquamarine color blocking on the top half of the shirt, that has quilt-like stitching. Photo by Maria J. Hackett.
she/black/her
Peoria, Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi), Myaamia, Kaskaskia, Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo); Chicago, IL
cat mahari’s practice is built from a richly layered body history, stemming from an archive of research, physical training and intent to manifest an intellectual, material and informal legacy of Blk liberation through documentation. By examining personal marks and socio-genealogical maps, she explores inner and outer environments. Her film Sugar in the Raw, is a surrealist-inspired exploration of Blk intimacy, trust, and touch via Chicago House and Stepping. At AfroFuturist Festival 2022, she is helming a collaborative multi-media and medium installation on Blkness, Violence, and AfroSino relationality. Additionally, mahari is preparing Blk Ark: the impossible manifestation – a multimodal reflective of marronage, anarchism, Hip Hop, and play to be completed 2025. In 2021, she was named the City of Chicago Esteemed Artist Awardee in Dance and received a 2021 3Arts award in dance. Her works include the Afro Sci-fi Krump film Imprints & Traces, and multi-disciplinary performance BAM! for which she received a CSF Generative Performing Artist Fellowship. BAM! is an immersive ensemble work, focusing on Blackness, Amerikkka, and violence. The post-disciplinary work, the mixtape series violent/break vol i and vol ii, has received national and international development support at Brink Festival (London), High Concept Labs (Chicago), and Imir Scene Kunst (Norway). mahari is a culture bearer of Hip Hop and House; former member of the Krump family Gool, with a B.F.A. in dance performance from the Conservatory of Music & Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and an M.A. in Performance, Practice, and Research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
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