2021 DIGITAL DANCE GRANT

B’Rael Ali Thunder is a painter, poet, dancer, curator, and educator from the South Side of Chicago. In his art and collaborations across platforms, one medium inspires another, forging connections across traditional boundaries. He paints from life and produces multi-discipline performances and creative arts events. Growing up on the South Side, he excelled in Chicago Footwork, a local dance tradition rooted in the history of Chicago House music. His grandmother Sandra Taylor gifted him with poetry at a young age. Over time, his love of dancing mixed with his love of painting, and he began to portrait local dancers battling and overcoming historic and contemporary struggles. Wanting to push further, he fuses live painting, dance, and poetry delivering high energy theatrical social justice themed solo and group performances in gallery shows, museums, community center, and diverse events. He directed an artist in residence program at the Hunter International Gallery, served as Resident Artist/Curator with the Southside Community Art Center, was Curator and Production Assistant at Luxe B Studio, a Links Hall Commissioned Artist, and an Envisioning Justice teaching artist. He completed an international residency at DeSingle International Arts Kampus and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since graduation in May 2020 he has completed eight exterior murals, recorded and produced six songs, and several digital dance performance videos. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was a Semi- Finalist for the U.S. Fulbright 2020 program. He is one of twenty of The Chicago Cultural Center’s 2020-21 Pre Qualified Artists.