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.
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.