Visiting Experts: nora chipaumire
This public talk is part of the Visiting Experts lecture series.
Nhaka (inheritance, legacy) is an animist decolonial practice and theory that the renowned artist nora chipaumire has been cultivating for more than a decade. The work and philosophy owe its genealogy to Shona culture and Shona spiritual practices. By referring to Nhaka and applying it, the work with participants will touch on physical practice, sound | gesture | space | spirit-text | language — we will circle around the why it matters to make art in spite of it all – race – history – empire.
About nora chipaumire
nora chipaumire was born in 1965 in what was then known as Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe). She is a product of colonial education for black native Africans – known as group B schooling – and is invested in knowledge acquisition and sharing outside of prescribed parameters.
chipaumire’s latest work is “NEHANDA” (2021), a large-scale opera, and the installation “afternow” (2022). Prior to the pandemic, chipaumire toured “#PUNK 100% POP *NIGGA” a three-part live performance album. Her other live works include “portrait of myself as my father” (2016), “RITE RIOT” (2012) and “Miriam” (2012). She made her directorial debut with the short film “Afro Promo #1 King Lady” (2016).
She is a four-time Bessie Award winner and recipient of the 2016 Trisha Mckenzie Memorial Award for her impact on the dance community in Zimbabwe. Additional Awards include recent three-year structural support from the Mellon Foundation (2022-25), the “Dance Bubble” grant from The Mellon Foundation (2021), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2016), a Doris Duke Artist Award (2015) and a Princeton Hodder Fellowship (2014).
She was a Senior Fellow at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University during the 2022/2023 academic year and also served as a guest professor at the Freie Universät Berlin in the fall of 2023. Currently, she is a Doris Duke Fellow, a Researcher-in-Residence at the NYU Future Imagination Collaboratory, and a Mellon Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University. In November 2023, she was awarded the Grand Prix de la Danse de Montréal for her opera Nehanda.
The upcoming open lecture is part of the Visiting Experts series where international experts in the arts and sciences, invited by Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy, share their knowledge.
Nhaka (inheritance, legacy) is an animist decolonial practice and theory that the renowned artist nora chipaumire has been cultivating for more than a decade. The work and philosophy owe its genealogy to Shona culture and Shona spiritual practices. By referring to Nhaka and applying it, the work with participants will touch on physical practice, sound | gesture | space | spirit-text | language — we will circle around the why it matters to make art in spite of it all – race – history – empire.
About nora chipaumire
nora chipaumire was born in 1965 in what was then known as Umtali, Rhodesia (now Mutare, Zimbabwe). She is a product of colonial education for black native Africans – known as group B schooling – and is invested in knowledge acquisition and sharing outside of prescribed parameters.
chipaumire’s latest work is “NEHANDA” (2021), a large-scale opera, and the installation “afternow” (2022). Prior to the pandemic, chipaumire toured “#PUNK 100% POP *NIGGA” a three-part live performance album. Her other live works include “portrait of myself as my father” (2016), “RITE RIOT” (2012) and “Miriam” (2012). She made her directorial debut with the short film “Afro Promo #1 King Lady” (2016).
She is a four-time Bessie Award winner and recipient of the 2016 Trisha Mckenzie Memorial Award for her impact on the dance community in Zimbabwe. Additional Awards include recent three-year structural support from the Mellon Foundation (2022-25), the “Dance Bubble” grant from The Mellon Foundation (2021), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2018), a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant (2016), a Doris Duke Artist Award (2015) and a Princeton Hodder Fellowship (2014).
She was a Senior Fellow at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University during the 2022/2023 academic year and also served as a guest professor at the Freie Universät Berlin in the fall of 2023. Currently, she is a Doris Duke Fellow, a Researcher-in-Residence at the NYU Future Imagination Collaboratory, and a Mellon Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University. In November 2023, she was awarded the Grand Prix de la Danse de Montréal for her opera Nehanda.
The upcoming open lecture is part of the Visiting Experts series where international experts in the arts and sciences, invited by Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy, share their knowledge.