Aisha Cousins

Aisha Cousins (born 1978) is New York-based artist. Cousins writes performance art scores that encourage black audiences to explore their parallel histories and diverse aesthetics. Her work has been widely performed at art institutions such as Weeksville Heritage Center, BRIC, Project Row Houses, the Kitchen, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, MoCADA, and MoMA PS1.

Early life and education Cousins was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is of Afro-American and Caribbean descent.

In 2000, Cousins received a B.A. in Studio Art with coursework in Black Studies and Sociology from Oberlin College.

Career From 2008 to 2012, Cousins worked as a performance artist, doing private studies and working with Fluxus artists Ben Vautier and Geoff Hendricks. In 2012, she was awarded a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council to produce a guide for her project designed for black youths whose schools have lost visual arts funding.

Artistic practice Aisha Cousins writes performance art scores – do-it-yourself instructions – for live art projects that engage black audiences from different backgrounds. Through her work Cousins encourages audiences and participants to explores ideas around beauty and the changes taking place in black communities. In 2011, Cousins formed Transmission Completed, a non-profit project from her arts studio, to deliver her art to black neighborhoods to engage groups of people that would not normally feel comfortable viewing art in a museum or gallery.

"Diva Dutch" series In Diva Dutch, Cousins worked with black women from around the world. She worked with local hairdressers to braid 15-foot-long cornrows, which were used as a double Dutch ropes that were connected to the heads of black women. The braided double Dutch rope connects the two women literally and metaphorically to the social history of double Dutch.

"It's a natural evolution of things that black girls in black urban areas across the country already do", says Cousins.

Cousins performed Diva Dutch on the streets of Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn), Brixton (London) and Barbès-Rochechouart (Paris). Some of the favorite responses chosen. The Soulville Census is a performance art score (set of written instructions for a live art project). The score reads simply "Create a census that gathers the data the 2010 US Census missed." It was composed by artist Aisha Cousins in response to the Census Bureau's decision to lump black folks of all backgrounds (Afro-American, Caribbean, and African) into a single checkbox.

"Beauty Shop Project" In 2014, Cousins spoke at University of Delaware about ideas of beauty and changes taking place in students' worlds. The goal of the "Beauty Shop Project" is to generate research about how community-based black barber and beauty shops can be sources of creativity and ideas directed towards improving quality of life, proactive citizenship and forming stronger communities.

Selected performances and exhibitions 2008–2013: "Diva Dutch" performed at: Downstreet Art Festival, North Adams, MA Come Out and Play. Times Square, NY Project Row Houses, Round 31. Houston, TX Tennessee State University. Nashville, TN 2011: New Museum. New York, NY, "The Top 4 Reasons the Democrats Lost the Election (Steve Harvey Style)", performed at Alpha's Bet Is Not Over Yet: Steffani Jemison and Friends." 2011: MoMA PS1, New York, NY, "How to Listen To Lil Wayne (for Nia, Nya, and Kamaria)" performed by Clifford Owens, Clifford Owens: Anthology 2011–2014: Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY, "Sit" 2012: Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn, NY, "The Soulville Census" 2013: BRIC Rotunda Gallery. Brooklyn, NY, "Cultural Fluency" 2014: Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, NY, "Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond"

Awards and residencies 2013: The Laundromat Project's Create Change Public Artist in Residence for BedStuy (Brooklyn, NY) 2014–15: Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient, Brooklyn, NY, for "Soulville Census" 2014–15: Fireworks Residency Award (collaboration with Greg Tate and Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber), BRIC. Brooklyn, NY.