DeMar Walker is a multidisciplinary artist and educator from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His work infuses dance, theatrical performance, film, photography, and text to depict stories of Black social, cultural, and political life in the Midwestern United States. He holds a Master's Degree in English from Marquette University. He has directed, choreographed, and performed for numerous performing arts organizations including Ko-Thi Dance Company, Danceworks Milwaukee, Black Arts Milwaukee, Wildspace Dance Company, First Stage Children's Theatre, Fleeing Artists Theatre, Camp Bagatae (Guinea), and Ecole Des Sables (Senegal). He once served as a dance lecturer in the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2021 & 2022, his dance short film The Beckoning was awarded Best Film and Best Director at the Milwaukee International Short Film Festival and Best Dance Performance at the Black Lives Rising Dance Festival. DeMar has written articles for Arts Midwest, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. He is a contributor to the publication Black in The Middle: An Anthology of the Black Midwest. Recently, he served as a creative consultant for the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance (CADD) conference “Body Geographies|Mapping Freedoms” and the House of History MKE Project which celebrates Black LGBTQ+ voices in the city of Milwaukee. Most recently, DeMar presented his creative work at the third biennial Black Midwest Symposium as an inaugural Art and Critical Praxis fellow in Dayton, Ohio. He is the founding editor of the literary zine series CURRENTS which he debuted as an inaugural artist-in-residence with Milwaukee Water Commons in October 2024. Currently, DeMar is an 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence with Arts-at-Large where his exhibition JUNIOR will be on display until March 2025.
For inquiries, contact DeMar at demarwalker@gmail.com
photo credit: Dexter Rogers