Tara Aisha Willis

Before joining EMPAC, Tara Aisha Willis served as performance curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, taught at the University of Chicago, and developed programs at Movement Research. She has been awarded research fellowships from the Getty Research Institute, the University of London, Indiana University Bloomington, Jacob’s Pillow, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Her writing has appeared in publications including Center for Art, Research, and Alliances , Danspace Project, Center for Book Arts, liquid blackness, MCA Chicago, The Black Scholar, Women & Performance, Performance Research, and The Brooklyn Rail, with work forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press. She has also co-edited artist books with Wendy’s Subway and, soon, Soberscove Press.

Her podcast series Mid-Ground, exploring Black Midwest dance legacies in practice, was produced by the National Choreographic Center of Akron. As a performer, she has worked with artists such as Will Rawls, Yanira Castro, devynn emory, Anna Sperber, and Paulina Olowska. She has also collaborated with Damon Locks, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Anna Martine Whitehead, Zachary Nicol, and Vanessa Anspaugh, and is a member of the Bessie Award–winning improvisation collective Skeleton Architecture.