BENJI HART / b. 1989
interdisciplinary artist / author / educator

EDUCATION

M.A. Elementary Education / University of Illinois / Chicago, 2014
B.A. African American Studies / Wesleyan University / Middletown, 2011

FELLOWSHIPS + AWARDS

Awardee / Lab Artist / Chicago Dancemakers Forum, 2023
Fellow / Yaddo / Saratoga Springs, 2022
Artistic Fellow / Young Chicago Authors / Chicago, 2022
Fellow / Trillium Arts / Mars Hill, 2022
3Arts Fellow / MacDowell / Peterborough, 2020
Artist-In-Residence / Amsterdam University of the Arts / Amsterdam, 2019
3Arts Fellow / Robert Rauschenberg Residency / Captiva, 2018
Visiting Fellow / Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership / Kalamazoo, 2018
Awardee / Women and Femmes to Celebrate / Chicago, 2016
Awardee in the Teaching Arts / 3Arts / Chicago, 2015

PERFORMANCES + READINGS

Black Arc / South Shore Cultural Center / Chicago, 2023
Chance Dance / Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities / Chicago, 2023
The Color Is: Renaissance Symposium / DuSable Black History Museum / Chicago, 2022
Open Door / Poetry Foundation / Chicago, 2022
World AIDS Day / Healthy Hood / Chicago, 2022
826 Day / Wicker Park Secret Agent Supply Co. / Chicago, 2022
Navigating Blackness/Navegando lo Negro / La Goyco / Santurce, 2022
Book Launch: Against Heaven by Kemi Alabi / Women & Children First / Chicago, 2022
Cultivating Us: A Night of Civic Love / Chicago United for Equity / Chicago, 2022
Close Encounters / Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art / Copenhagen, 2021
In Progress / Museum of Contemporary Art / Chicago, 2021
Exhibit B / Guild Literary Complex / Chicago, 2021
Signs of Change / Gallery of Contemporary Mosaics / Chicago, 2021
WordPlay / Young Chicago Authors / Chicago, 2020
Elements of Vogue / Museo Universitario del Chopo / Mexico City, 2020
HALf6 / Amsterdam University of the Arts / Amsterdam, 2019
Dyke Mic / Ojo de Fortuna, Slaymaker & AMFM Gallery / Chicago, 2016-2019

WORKSHOPS + FACILITATION

Political Education + Youth Work

Staff Training / Asian Family Support Services of Austin, 2023
La Resistencia Fellowship / Logan Square Neighborhood Association, 2022-2023
Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League / Percy Julian Middle School, 2020, 2023
Black History/Futures Month / Northwestern Women’s Center, 2023
Navigating Blackness/Navegando lo Negro / La Goyco, 2022
WILD! / American Friends Service Committee, 2022
Youth Action / Southside Together Organizing for Power, 2018-2022
Social Justice Club / Sullivan High School, 2021-2022
Abolition 101 Training / Coalition to Decarcerate IL, 2022
Volunteer Training / People Matter, 2021-2022
Youth Ensemble / Free Street Theater, 2022
Be Bold / Pilgrim Congregational Church of Oak Park, 2021
Invest/Divest Learning Community / Interrupting Criminalization, 2021
DisOrientation / Dissenters, 2020-2021
Summer Leadership Retreat / Chicago Desi Youth Rising, 2015-2021
Youth Summer Institute / Pilsen Alliance, 2019-2021
Abolitionist Youth Organizing Institute / Project NIA, 2020-2021
Storytelling and Racial Justice / Amherst Regional High School, 2021
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day / Phillips Academy Andover, 2021
Ominira Teen Program / Assata’s Daughters, 2017-2018, 2020
LGBTQ Economic Justice Summit / Chicago LGBTQ Workers Center, 2020
Fighting Anti-Blackness / Cicero Community Collaborative, 2020
#DefundPolice Club / St. Steven’s Youth Programing, 2020
Summer Leadership Institute / Chicago Freedom School, 2020
A History of Policing / Freedom Lifted, 2020
West Side Youth Abolitionist Training / American Friends Service Committee, 2020
A Just Chi / Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago, 2020
Virtual Week of Action / Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism, 2020
Reproductive Justice & Prison Abolition / Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, 2020
Elements of Vogue / Museo Universitario del Chopo, 2020
Youth Leadership Retreat / Southside Together Organizing for Power, 2019
Journeys / Embarc Chicago, 2019
Health Disparities: Equity & Advocacy / Pritzker School of Medicine, 2019
Training the Future: Context, Difference & Awareness in Dance Education / Amsterdam University of the Arts, 2019
Student Voice & Activism Fellowship / Chicago Public Schools, 2018-2019
Mes de Orgullo / PASO West Suburban Action Project, 2018-2019
Asamblea Comunitaria / Organized Communities Against Deportations, 2019
Annual Youth Summit / Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, 2018-2019
Demilitarization School / War Resisters League, 2019
Intersectional Approaches to Social Work with LGBTQIA Individuals & Communities / University of Chicago, 2019
Youth Theater Ensemble / About Face Theater, 2019

Professional Development + Guest Lectures

Staff Retreat / Dissenters, 2021-2023
Safety Training / Dissenters, 2021, 2023
All-Staff Meeting / Logan Square Neighborhood Association, 2023
Surveillance Culture / Colby College, 2021, 2023
End of Year Retreat / Liberation Library, 2022
Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 / American Repertory Theater, 2022
WILD! / American Friends Service Committee, 2022
Engage Chicago / Northwestern University, 2018-2022
Becoming Allies to Trans Youth / After School Matters, 2022
All-Staff Meeting / Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, 2021-2022
Core Retreat / Organized Communities Against Deportations, 2019, 2022
(Un)Learning Sessions / Forward Together, 2022
Creating New Anchors: An Introduction to Prison Industrial Complex Abolition / University of Chicago, 2021-2022
Portal Project / Social Justice Initiative, 2021-2022
Youth Knowledge and Activism in Contemporary Social Justice Movements / Clark University, 2021
We Do This ‘Til We Free Us / The New School / 2021
Prisons & Policing / Seattle University School of Law, 2021
Staff Retreat / Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, 2021
Staff Retreat / Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, 2021
Deconstructing Language: Liberationist Writing for Performance / National Center for Choreography at Akron, 2021
#4TheQulture / Open Television, 2021
Disrupt the System / Cornell University, 2021
Rise ‘N’ Learn / Illinois Public Health Association, 2021
Black Performance History / Smith College, 2020
GARE Abolition Series / Race Forward, 2020
Liberation Collective / Phillips Academy Andover, 2020
Free Black Mamas Bail Out Pre-Convening / National Bail Out, 2020
Strategic Planning / Chicago Community Bond Fund, 2020
Invisible 2 Invincible / Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago, 2019-2020
Indicting the Racist War on Drugs / Law For Black Lives & People’s Law Office, 2020
Convening on Disrupting Police Gang Labeling / Grace Place, 2019
Towards an Accountable Chicago / Chicago Freedom School, 2019

Poetry + Movement

Hands Performance 101 / La Goyco, 2023
Mothering In Abundance / SisterSong, 2022
Trans*forming Social Work / University of Chicago, 2022
(Un)Learning Sessions / Forward Together, 2022
Close Encounters / Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art, 2021
The LGBTQ Center / Brown University, 2021
Liberation Library Poetry Writing Series / St. Charles Juvenile Detention Center, 2021
#CopsOutCPS / Chicago Public Schools Headquarters, 2020
Health Disparities: Equity & Advocacy / Pritzker School of Medicine, 2019
Training the Future: Context, Difference & Awareness in Dance Education / Amsterdam University of the Arts, 2019
Fire Historical & Cultural Arts Collaborative / Kalamazoo, 2019
FOCUS on the Arts / Highland Park High School, 2019
Chosen Family Day / Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 2019

PUBLISHED WRITING

Anthologies

826CHI, 2022 / Tomorrow’s Titans: Poetry to Grow a New Future
The Hoodoisie, 2022 / Never Normal Again
Beacon Press, 2022 / And the Category Is… : Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community
Oxford University Press, 2021 / Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: Second Edition
Motto Books, 2020 / Elements of Vogue: A Case Study in Radical Performance
Chicago Architecture Biennial, 2019 / The Funambulist by its Readers: Political Geographies from Chicago and Elsewhere
AK Press, 2017 / Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief
AK Press, 2015 / Taking Sides: Radical Solidarity & the Poverty of Liberalism

Essays + Poems

In These Times, 2023 / No Cop City Anywhere
South Side Weekly, 2023 / Anti-Black and Anti-Immigrant Racism Reinforce One Another. Solidarity Is the Only Way We Win
Sixty Inches from Center, 2022 / Makeup, Mortification, and Memory: A Review of “Evidence” by Bimbola Akinbola
Project NIA, 2022 / Practicing Abolition, Creating Community
Performance Response Journal, 2021 / Discerning the Current: A response by Benji Hart
The Funambulist, 2021 / Forcing Black People to Interact With Police Is Itself State Violence
The Funambulist, 2021 / What COVID, Police Killings, and My Rent Increasing All Have in Common
Autostraddle, 2021 / For Trans Puerto Ricans, Passing Laws Is Only Part of the Battle for Liberation
Time Magazine, 2021 / The Ballroom Scene Has Long Offered Radical Freedoms For Black and Brown Queer People. Today, That Matters More Than Ever
Autostraddle, 2020 / Principles of Pride: Police and Prisons Do Not Belong in Our Future
Out of Print, 2020 / In A Pandemic, Prison Abolition Is More Necessary and More Possible Than Ever
Truthout, 2020 / ICE Is Torturing LGBTQ Immigrants by Putting Them in Solitary
Poetry Foundation, 2019 / On Trans Day of Resilience, Envisioning the End of the Systems that Killed Layleen Polanco
Forward Together, 2019 / Layleen’s Bill (With Revisions)
Them, 2019 / This Bookstore Is Still on the Cutting Edge of Feminism, 40 Years Later
ArtsEverywhere, 2019 / Vogue Is Not For You: Deciding Who We Give Our Art To
Chicago Reader, 2019 / How #NoCopAcademy Shook the Machine
The Advocate, 2019 / Chicago’s First Black Lesbian Mayor Isn’t A Victory For All Queers
Teen Vogue, 2019 / What to Expect When Visiting A Plantation Where Your Ancestors Were Enslaved

CONSULTATION

Spring Issue / Stateville Speaks, 2022
#HateCrimeLawsArentTheAnswer / Transgender Law Center, 2021
Mutual Aid + ACP / Alternatives to Calling the Police During Mental Health Crises, 2021

INTERVIEWS + FEATURES

Cop City Is Only the Beginning, Unless We Fight / Movement Memos, 2023
8 O’Clock Buzz / WORT 89.9FM Madison, 2023
The Turn On x Benji Hart / The Turn On Podcast, 2022
Sibling Miniseries #9: Benji and Maya Hart / How to Survive the End of the World, 2021
Black, Trans & / Glori Tuitt, 2021
Benji Has Nothing But Hart! / The Real Hoodwives of Chicago, 2021
Our Grieving Hands Will Build It: A Collaborative Memorial Event / Lifted Voices, 2021
Trans and Non-Binary BIPOC Poets Discuss Human Rights & Poetics of Justice with Kay Ulanday Barrett / Lambda Literary, 2021
Benji Hart, on Abolition and Sports / Burn It All Down, 2021
Envisioning New Futures with Benji Hart / South Side Weekly Radio, 2020
Let This Radicalize You: A COVID Memorial Mixtape / Lifted Voices, 2020
The Grassroots VS The Misleadership Class / Groundings, 2020
6 Modern Abolitionists On What Emancipation Means For Juneteenth 2020 / Elite Daily, 2020
10 Black Women and Queer Activists Working to Change Chicago / Block Club Chicago, 2020
Building a World Without Police and Prisons / Queering Left, 2020
Questions to Ask While Waiting / The United States of Anxiety, 2020
LGBTQ+ Liberation vs. Representation ft. Benji Hart / Bourbon ‘n BrownTown, 2019
Now We Know We Can Reclaim the World We Want: A Conversation with Pony Zion and Benji Hart / ArtsEverywhere, 2019
Mayor-Elect Lori Lightfoot’s Track Record / Out-FM, 2019
#EndMoneyBail / Coalition to End Money Bond, 2019

PRESENTATIONS + PANELS

Panelist / Why Hate Crime Laws Don’t Protect Trans People
w/ Yves Tong Nguyen & Woods Ervin
#HateCrimeLawsArentTheAnswer / Transgender Law Center, 2023

Panelist / #NoCopAcademy Documentary Screening
w/ Karina Martinez, Citatli Perez, & Caullen Hudson
14 East Magazine / Chicago, 2023

Panelist / It’s All Policing, It’s All War: Chicago Organizers on Connecting Abolition & Demilitarization
w/ Asha Ransby-Sporn & Timmy Châu
Barnard Center for Research on Women / New York, 2023

Panelist / Healing from Intergenerational Trauma at Sites of Enslavement
w/ Kim Whyte & Anthony Andrade
Descendant Communities Social Innovation Lab / Washington DC, 2023

Panelist / State of the Empire, State of the Movement
w/ Dunyah Abulaban, Bettina Johnson & Rabail Sofi
Dissenters’ Midwest Regional Gathering / Chicago, 2023

Panelist / Keeping Each Other Safe
w/ Bresha Meadows & Monica Cosby
Gender & Women’s Studies / University of Illinois Chicago, 2022

Presenter / BombaVogue Experimentation
w/ Ivelisse Díaz & Edrimael Delgado Reyes
Navigating Blackness/Navegando lo Negro / DuSable Black History Museum, 2022

Panelist / Journalism Roundtable
w/ Cara Reedy, Jacqui Germain, Keri Blakinger, Josie Duffy Rice & Maya Schenwar
Chicago Transformation Collab / Chicago, 2022

Panelist / Yoga & the Roots of Healing Justice: Abolition
w/ Damon Williams, Noha Arafa & Peregrine Bermas
Socially Engaged Yoga Network / Chicago, 2022

Panelist / Ball Culture + Abolition
w/ Ricky Tucker
Bagatelle Books / Asheville, 2022

Panelist / Failing Police Reforms
w/ Alysia Harris
Criminal Justice Live / PushBlack, 2022

Panelist / Reflections on the Artist Experience + Expanding Opportunities in the Field
w/ Alisha B Wormsley, Jordan Seaberry & Justin Levesque
Artist Communities Alliance / Providence, 2021

Panelist / Imagine a World Without Prisons
w/ Derecka Purnell & Dylan Rodriguez
International Festival of Arts & Ideas / New Haven, 2021

Panelist / Ballroom Has Something to Say…About Art, Justice & Healing
w/ Ayana Christian, Jennifer E. Lee, Marlon M. Bailey & Michael Roberson
Table Talks / Reimagine, 2021

Panelist / Abolition & Revolutionary Imaginations
w/ Bresha Meadows, Asha Edwards & Lil Tree
Race & the Politics of Incarceration / University of Illinois Chicago, 2021

Panelist / Disability Justice & the Fight for Racial Equity
w/ Dior Vargas & Jae Jin Pak
ADA 25 Advancing Leadership / Chicago, 2020

Panelist / DEFUND REFORM REIMAGINE
w/ Allyssa Victory & Edgar Ibarra
Building Healthy Communities / East Salinas, 2020

Panelist / Abolition Is Not Conditional: Connecting Across Issue Areas
w/ Setareh Ghandehari, Sharlyn Grace, Dominique Morgan & Azadeh Shahshahani
#Law4ThePeople Convention / National Lawyers Guild, 2020

Panelist / Political Geographies of Chicago
w/ Patricia Nguyen, Jesse Mumm, Maira Khwaja & Anjulie Rao
Chicago Architecture Biennial / Chicago Cultural Center, 2019

Panelist / Making Lineages Visible: Women & Femmes Organizing in Chicago
w/ Kelly Hayes & Byul Yoon
Chicago Architecture Biennial / Jane Addams Hull-House, 2019

Panelist / The Aesthetics of Violence & Resistance, from Fashion to Architecture
w/ Hoda Katebi & Leena Odeh
Chicago Architecture Biennial / Arts Incubator, 2019

Panel Moderator / Chicago inJustice: Anti-Racist Action & Mass Incarceration
w/ Black & Pink Chicago & the Chicago Community Bond Fund
Norris University Center / Northwestern University, 2019