CURATORIAL
CURATOR OF PUBLIC
PROGRAMS & PERFORMANCES
2021-2024
During her three years at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, Casimir curated intentional and community-focused programs and performances, from contemporary dance to cultural storytelling.
COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS
WE ARE THE ROOTS, 2024
FREEDOM STORY, 2023 & 2024
WAMPUM / ᎠᏕᎳ ᏗᎦᎫᏗ, 2024
SQUID, 2023
YIELD: WE BELONG TO THE LAND, 2022
SANCTUARY REDEFINED, 2022
ILLUME, 2022
EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC, 2022
“We come together as Black artists to acknowledge our place in the African continuum as flesh, blood and spirit. We improvise to survive; we improvise to thrive. This is how we understand our place in the cosmos,” says co-curators Marie Casimir and Ebony Iman Dallas.
Local nonprofit Afrikanation Artists Organization and Djaspora Productions presented Still Here: The Cosmology of Black Resilience, an interdisciplinary art exhibition that asks the maker and the viewer: What does it mean to be Black and resilient?
STILL HERE: THE COSMOLOGY OF BLACK RESILIENCE, 2021
“After a year as trying as 2020, [Still Here] ushers in the new year by celebrating the multitudes of experiences we have as Black people ... Our stories are not only about struggle; we want people to see and understand all of our humanity.”
The exhibition offered both in-person and virtual opportunities to engage with visual art, dance, poetry, and storytelling. All programs were free & open to the public.
January 13 - March 2, 2021 | Myriad Botanical Gardens | Oklahoma City, OK
FIRST WE DANCE, 2019
The series First We Dance. Then We Greet. Then We Eat. at SixTwelve was curated and organized by Marie Casimir and Chaya Fletcher. By merging Africa and African-Diasporic arts and the influences of the diverse Oklahoma City community, the workshops brought together dance and culinary artists to collaborate on a shared afternoon of communal movement and nourishment.
“I am inspired by my Haitian-American upbringing, where food was prepared, while family and neighbors danced, music played and there was always an occasion to celebrate in our home.”
NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK US-JAPAN CONNECTION PROJECT, 2015
As a part of the U.S. curators team of the NPN’s US-Japan Connection project (Project), Casimir joined MK Wegmann (NPN CEO), Kyoko Yoshida (NPN Asia Exchange program consultant), Ron Berry (Fusebox, Austin), and Steve McQueen (Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington). Over the six-day visit, the team of curators attended the Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting (TPAM), intimate and larger network meetings, and live performances in various spaces across the city, including Kanagawa Arts Theater- KAAT), ST Spot, and the Red Brick Warehouse on the waterfront.
