National & International Projects

As Executive Director of Duniate Culture Foundation (2018-2023), Brianna Alexis was responsible for creating and managing some of the organization’s flagship programs including: D’atè Festival, Artist Convening, the Young Emerging Artist Residency program, Arts & Culture Week, and the Dance Education and Entrepreneurial Practices Convention. The first of their kind in Southern Kaduna, these programs ensured a creative space for young and emerging artists of African descent to launch sustainable artistic careers.

Brianna curated various programming throughout the city of Chicago that supported and highlighted the work of Black artists including: SAFE SPACE Chicago--a Black artist collective and studio that hosted community discussions and art pop-ups in partnership with the Southside Community Art Center; Black Arts Festival at Columbia College Chicago, and the Young Artist Intensive for high school students aged 13-18. Brianna also served as a dance critic for See Chicago Dance, and dramaturg to performance artists, Onye Ozuzu, Keyierra Collins, and Aaliyah Christina.

Brianna has supported local churches and religious institutions in the Metro Atlanta area as a creative thought partner, social media manager, and project manager. Brianna served as Community Engagement Director for Greater St. Paul COGIC in Lithonia, GA where she designed and managed several community programs, including Cornerstone: Discipleship Training Series--a monthly community event that featured panel discussions, workshops, business mixers, healthcare forums, and leadership training; and Stay on Target: Study Skills Seminar—a hybrid, one-day, summer academic readiness program for students K-12 based in DeKalb County. She currently provides consulting services to local congregations, offering technology solutions and marketing support at national and regional conferences.

Artistic Practice

Bri arrived at cultural organizing through the artistic, spiritual, and communal currents of Black feminism. Reading bell hooks and tending to her own Southern, Blackpentecostal sensibilities—through the tactile labor of shaping performance installations—drew her into Black feminist world-making. If she could turn galleries, living rooms, and street corners into performance spaces using found objects, sound, and movement, then she could also build the infrastructures where those imagined worlds might take root. Cultural organizing is inseparable from her life as a performance installation artist. The spaces she creates through artistic collaboration are transgressive, inviting audiences to think, feel, breathe, and move together.

Take Some Leave Some

Chicago-based performance collective founded by Brianna Alexis Heath, Keyierra Collins, and Jovan Landry in 2019. TSLS creates immersive and durational performance experiences exploring themes related to Black womanhood.

Tati’s Buttah Joint (2023)

An immersive house party and night of performances celebrating and centering the stories of Black women. Tati’s featured a lineup of dynamic Black femme performance and visual artists and local vendors. Collaborators included: Constance Strickland (Los Angeles, CA), Oluwabukunmi Olukitibi (Abuja, Nigeria), DJ Professor Wrecks (Chicago, IL), and Alexandra Antoine (Chicago, IL), The Kush Kutie (Chicago, IL), and Eso Shea Therapy (Chicago, IL). This experience was supported by Links Hall Curatorial Residency.

The Shwang Out (2023)

An intimate, experimental gathering at Links Hall that gives “a-call-to-your-girlfriend-before-going-out” and “playing-in-your-grandmother’s-closet.” The performance created space for Black women to commune with one another and explore themes such as joy, sexuality, spirituality, friendship, sisterhood, mothering, and belonging. The performance was created as an intentional sister space in preparation for the “get down” at Tati’s Buttah Joint. Collaborators included: Constance Strickland (Los Angeles, CA), Oluwabukunmi Olukitibi (Abuja, Nigeria), DJ Professor Wrecks (Chicago, IL), and Alexandra Antoine (Chicago, IL), The Kush Kutie (Chicago, IL), and Eso Shea Therapy (Chicago, IL). This experience was supported by Links Hall Curatorial Residency.

The Procession / Love Offering (2022)

A durational installation exploring questions related to Black femme lineages and homeplace. This performance found a home in the Pullman neighborhood, beginning with a procession from Greenwood United Methodist Church and ending in a lounge space at the Pullman Artist Lofts, which was transformed to resemble a home. This performance was the second of three performances created with support from a Pullman Laboring Together community grant. Dedicated to our mothers and grandmothers.

Untitled / The Church (2023)

The final installment of our Pullman Laboring Together performance series, exploring spirituality and Black childhood. Hosted at Greenwood United Methodist Church in the Pullman neighborhood.