J'Sun Howard
J’Sun Howard is a Chicago-based dancemaker and poet whose work explores intimacy, tenderness, fugitivity, and practices of freedom between Black and Brown men. Through choreography, performance, writing, and social practice, he creates immersive worlds that invite audiences into states of generosity, vulnerability, ritual, and compassionate play.
Rooted in improvisation, embodied research, and intercultural exchange, Howard’s practice often examines how people remain connected, loving, and fully alive amid social fragmentation, political instability, and systems that attempt to diminish human dignity. His ongoing artistic relationship with Japan—particularly Kobe—has become a significant site of creative and cultural exchange within his work.
Howard is a recipient of support from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Performance Network, U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, Asian Cultural Council, 3Arts, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, and the Illinois Arts Council. He was awarded the inaugural Esteemed Artist Award from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and was named a U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellow.
His choreography has been presented nationally and internationally at venues and festivals including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Danspace Project (New York City), The Arts Club of Chicago, Center for Performance Research (NYC), Links Hall, Art Theater dB Kobe (Japan), M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, New Dance Festival International (South Korea), and Holding Common Ground: Pathway to Cultural Exchange (Vietnam). In 2019, he received Best Dance Choreographer at the New Dance Festival International in Daejeon, South Korea.
Howard has been commissioned by Northwestern University, Columbia College Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, Common Conservatory, and World Dance Alliance. He has also performed with and alongside artists including Darrell Jones, Damon Green, DJ Justin Mitchell, Malcolm Jason Low, Asimina Chremos, Sara Wookey, Paige Cunningham-Caldarella, and Selene Carter.
As a writer, Howard’s poetry and hybrid texts have appeared in publications including The Shade Journal, Calamus Journal, Bird’s Thumb, Sonic Boom, and I Can’t Breathe: A Poetic Anthology of Fresh Air. His recent writing practice includes haiku and haibun developed through his ongoing time in Japan.
Featured Artworks
Total Beings | Burning Hearts at Art Theater dB Kobe, Japan; 2025
Photo by Junpei Iwamoto
Total Beings | Burning Hearts at Art Theater dB Kobe, Japan; 2025
Photo by Junpei Iwamoto
Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves at REDCAT, Los Angeles; 2024
Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves at REDCAT, Los Angeles; 2024
Photo by Angel Origgi
The Righteous Beauty of the Things Never Accounted For at Links Hall; 2023
Photo by Michelle Reid
The Righteous Beauty of the Things Never Accounted For at Links Hall; 2023
Photo by Michelle Reid
J'Sun Howard has crowd-funded a project with 3AP
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- $5,125 raised of $5,000 goal
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For over a year and in different iterations, I have been collaborating with dance artists Solomon Bowser, Dedrick "D. Banks" Gray, Damon Green, and Orlando DeLeon to develop aMoratorium, a response and tribute to visual artist Charles Wilbert White. …
Read more about aMoratorium -
- $6,010 raised of $5,000 goal
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I am developing a new experimental dance piece called The Righteous Beauty of the Things Never Accounted For. This work explores Black Fugitivity, a concept that explores the ongoing and historical resistance to systems of oppression that Black people …
Read more about The Righteous Beauty of the Things Never Accounted For -
- $2,812 raised of $2,000 goal
- 0 Days 0:00:00 LEFT
Co-developers Bernard Brown and J’Sun Howard invite you into Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves—a bold performance project that celebrates and archives the creative brilliance of Black, Brown, and Indigenous Queer communities. Through dance, music, film, and storytelling, this work …
Read more about Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves