The solo mixtape series Violent/Break: Vol II is an interdisciplinary solo performance, first workshopped during a 2017 residency at 31st&Brklyn, supported by an M-AAA Artist Innovations grant. It involves the soundscapes of Kerwin Young and the direction, choreography, text, and scenography of Cat Mahari. Vol II explores violence as an ontological relational process containing spiritual, martial, and transcendental points of revelation. It centralizes the African diaspora cultural technology of krump and Chen tai chi chuan, a Chinese martial art. Krump, a style of street dance is also an acronym standing for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Praise, positioning it as a form of spiritual praise dancing.
Artist Statement:
Cat Mahari’s work builds upon a richly layered body history, stemming from archival research, cultural immersion, and physical training. With the intent of manifesting an intellectual and informal legacy through documentation. She explores the connectivity between behavior, psyche, and aesthetic process. Her projects are devised in a spectrum of exploration, and often integrate video projection to re-define the capacity of humans to create resonance embedded in African diaspora cultural emergence of street dances, games, and music.
Artist Bio
Cat Mahari creates work based on personal and collective transformational possibilities. She is the founder/director of 31st&Brklyn, a platform for performance art and community engagement. Ms. Mahari, is a member of Chi-Buck Collective, a Krump family, and Gateway City Breakers, a hip-hop crew. She has a BFA in dance from UMKC, and an MA in Performance, Practice, and Research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
catmahari.com
31stBrklyn.com
facebook.com/31stbrklyn