Tawanda Chabikwa, guest artist-in-residence at NKU SOTA, will present a community engagement event focusing on Africana dance, human ecology and their intersection with the performing arts.

Tawanda Chabikwa is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar whose work revolves around Black and Africana dance practices, artificial intelligence, Africana conceptual systems, practice-based research, and creative collaboration.

Current research and creative practice investigates choreographic practices of transnational African artists, AI and machine learning modalities in/for Black lifeworlds, Africana cosmologies and philosophy, decolonial pedagogies, and embodied research methodologies.

He holds a B.A. in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic, an M.F.A. in Dance from Southern Methodist University, and works with storytelling, performance art, and visual art (most recent exhibition was at the William H. Thomas Gallery in Columbus, Ohio 2017), and creative writing (first novel Baobabs in Heaven published in 2010).

Tawanda holds a doctorate in Africana Studies from the Department of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University and currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso working in both the Theater & Dance department, and the African American Studies program.

Tawanda’s interdisciplinary scholarly and creative endeavors have led to collaborative encounters, including think-tank initiatives, educational practice, performances installations, visual art exhibitions, and presentations in Zimbabwe, France, Mozambique, many parts of the United States and more.