Marie Casimir
Marie Casimir is a Haitian-American interdisciplinary artist, producer, writer, and lecturer. Her practice is rooted in improvised movement coupled with set choreography and performative text. She claims Theatrical Jazz as a performance lineage and creates work that straddles the multiple cultures, languages, and ancestral memories that exist within the body. She is the recipient of a Ragdale Artist Fellowship, OneLove Nola Residency, SixTwelve Artist in Residence, and a National Performance Network Mobility Grant. Casimir’s work has been featured at Links Hall, Constellation, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, The Music Box Village, the University of Oklahoma, and more. She has collaborated with many artists, including Sharon Bridgforth, Meida McNeal, Michael Zerang, Joe Mcphee, Lara Oppenheimer, Charles Rumbach, and Crystal Sabbagh.
She is the founder and Director of Djaspora Productions, a company producing the development and presentation of interdisciplinary arts and cultural exchanges while connecting artists of color both locally and globally; co-founder and producer of the Instigation Festival, a festival of improvised music and dance; and the Producing Partner for Black Arts Retreat. Casimir is a Lecturer in the Clara Luper African & African American Studies Department at the University of Oklahoma and has served as the Communications and Associate Director of Links Hall (Chicago).