Bio / Statement

BIO
Michael Workman is a choreographer, language, visual and movement artist, dance and performance artist, writer, reporter, and sociocultural critic. In addition to his work at the Chicago Tribune, Guardian US, Newcity magazine, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio and elsewhere, Workman is also Director of Bridge, an artistic collective and 501 (c) (3) publishing and programming organization (bridge-chicago.org). His choreographic writing has been included in Propositional Attitudes, an "anthology of recent performance scores, directions and instructions" published by Golden Spike Press, and his Perfect Worlds: Artistic Forms & Social Imaginaries Vol. 1, the first in a 3-volume series, was released by StepSister Press in October 2018 with a day-long program of performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Most recently, two of his scores were accepted for publication in a special edition of the Notre Dame Review focusing on the work of participants in the &NOW Festival of Innovative Writing.

STATEMENT
I think my work is often an attempt to understand the boundaries of intimacy as they shift between public and private, and how those shifts may mirror stigmatizing social exclusions that limit access to essential crisis support and resources. I’ve often tried to address this work from an urbanist perspective, with a focus on collaboration. Recently, for me this has meant working in choreography, language, visual and movement art, design, dance and performance art, writing, reporting, and social practice.