nia love is a 2017 Bessie Award recipient for Outstanding Performer as part of the Skeleton Architecture ensemble, convened by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. She is a mother, grandmother, activist, choreographer, educator, co-founder of LOVE|FORTÉ the collective, and former Artistic Director of nia love|Blacksmith’s Daughter Dance. She is a two-time Fulbright Fellow for research in Ghana, a two-time recipient of the Brooklyn Arts Exchange/BAX Artist-in-residence program, and two-time recipient of New York Live Arts’ Suitcase Fund Award/Africa and Middle East Cultural partnership. Additionally, she has been the recipient of the CUNY Dance Initiative residency, a Movement Research Artist-in-residence, and the CUNY Incubator Grant. Her work has been presented at many venues including NYU Skirball, Danspace Project, Harlem Stage, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, New York Live Arts, NOLA Cultural Arts Center, MOCADA, Montpelier Arts Center, Snug Harbor, and the Nafasi Art Space-Tanzania. Presently, she was awarded the DiP is an Artist Advisor to the BAX Artist-In-Residence program and the BAX Racial Equity Advisor. In 2018, love was a visiting professor at UCLA, the New School, and Bard College. Presently love is the visiting-Artist-in-residence at University of Illinois, Urbana-champaign and most recently awarded the 2019 Gibney Dance in Process (DiP) Artist-in-residency, and is a Gibney Presents Artist in Residence for a world premiere season 2019-2020. More information at www.nia-love.com.