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[ID: Cynthia stands in profile extending an arm behind her to hold and display the skirt of her long, flower-printed dress designed and crafted by Robert Young.]
This award was generously supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
She earned a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University, a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for choreography, a 2016 Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography Mellon fellowship, and a 2011 University Scholar award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a 2017 Center for Advanced Studies associate and currently serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation in the Humanities, Arts, and Related Fields at UIUC, where she is a professor in the Dance Department with affiliations in African American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies.
She has authored numerous articles for a variety of journals and edited volumes as well as the book Queen of the Virgins: Pageantry and Black Womanhood in the Caribbean (2009). Her most recent evening-length performance work, Virago-Man Dem, premiered at BAM’s 2017 Next Wave festival and toured the country. Oliver is thrilled and honored to be selected as a 2021 United States Artists Fellow.
Portrait photo by LaTosha Pointer.
Virago-Man Dem premiere, 2017. Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
[ID: Black performers in hoodies strike dramatic poses on a dark stage. A graphic of a Black man in profile projects behind them.]