okcandice (one word, all lowercase) is a writer, artist-curator, archivist and musician between Birmingham and Berlin. They are a Jerwood Arts Curatorial Fellow and Obsidian Foundation Fellow.
Their practice is explained as «i'm working on it» (a nod to neurodiverse approaches to working), researching methodologies of grief through sound in the collective, and the preservation of Black audio/visual archive materials through text and live performance.
okcandice is a co-founding member of the collectives poet & prophetess and Bredryn. In 2019, they founded all fruits ripe — an independent series for queer, Black/Global Majority filmmakers. Forthcoming is Portals — a digital archive documenting British West Indian customs in the domestic.
Today, they maintain the digital project okcandice archive, host the experimental broadcast Bedtime Stories on Cashmere Radio and the audio/research series Must Be The Music on Refuge Worldwide.
Their practice is explained as «i'm working on it» (a nod to neurodiverse approaches to working), researching methodologies of grief through sound in the collective, and the preservation of Black audio/visual archive materials through text and live performance.
okcandice is a co-founding member of the collectives poet & prophetess and Bredryn. In 2019, they founded all fruits ripe — an independent series for queer, Black/Global Majority filmmakers. Forthcoming is Portals — a digital archive documenting British West Indian customs in the domestic.
Today, they maintain the digital project okcandice archive, host the experimental broadcast Bedtime Stories on Cashmere Radio and the audio/research series Must Be The Music on Refuge Worldwide.
okcandice has worked with…
3-hd Festival (Creamcake Berlin), Berlin Art Link, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Museums Trust, BIPOC Film Society, British Council Germany, BOM, BOZAR Brussels, Cashmere Radio, Coach, DICE Conference & Festival, Eastside Projects, Film and Vid Umbrella, Frieze, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Hebbel Am Ufer Theatre, Highsnobiety, Jerwood Arts, Kunstverein Hamburg, Literarisches Colloquium, New Art Exchange, Night School Berlin, Pop-Kultur Festival, Roter Salon/Volksbühne Berlin, Savvy Contemporary, Sleek Mag, Sneakersnstuff Berlin, Soho House Berlin, Soho House Gallery Birmingham, SoMad NYC, Tramlines Festival, Trauma Bar & Kino, Torstraßen Festival et al.
more life / more love / more fruits
3-hd Festival (Creamcake Berlin), Berlin Art Link, Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Museums Trust, BIPOC Film Society, British Council Germany, BOM, BOZAR Brussels, Cashmere Radio, Coach, DICE Conference & Festival, Eastside Projects, Film and Vid Umbrella, Frieze, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Hebbel Am Ufer Theatre, Highsnobiety, Jerwood Arts, Kunstverein Hamburg, Literarisches Colloquium, New Art Exchange, Night School Berlin, Pop-Kultur Festival, Roter Salon/Volksbühne Berlin, Savvy Contemporary, Sleek Mag, Sneakersnstuff Berlin, Soho House Berlin, Soho House Gallery Birmingham, SoMad NYC, Tramlines Festival, Trauma Bar & Kino, Torstraßen Festival et al.
more life / more love / more fruits
CV
POSITIONS HELD
2022-Present Director/Head of Programming, all fruits ripe (Birmingham)
2021-Present Freelance Curator
↳ 2021-2022 Birmingham Museums Trust
↳ 2022-Present Bredryn
2020-2021 Artist-Curator Trainee, Eastside Projects (Birmingham)
2018-2020 Managing Editor, YEOJA Mag (Berlin)
2017-2018 Staff Writer, Highsnobiety (Berlin)
2017 Staff Writer (Intern), Berlin Art Link (Berlin)
EDUCATION & TRAINING
2022 BFI Producer Series (West Midlands)
2020-2021 Artist-Curator Trainee, Eastside Projects (Birmingham)
2013-2016 BA English Literature and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia
RADIO & BROADCASTING
2022 Must Be The Music on Refuge Worldwide (Berlin)
2022 Bedtime Stories w/ okcandice on Cashmere Radio (Berlin)
EVENT PRODUCTION
2019-Present ALL FRUITS RIPE (founder, producer & curator)
2019 YEOJA Mag x Sneakersnstuff Berlin Launch Party (co-producer)
2019-2020 The R.A.P Party Berlin (co-producer & co-curator)
CURATION
2022 Blood & Fire: Our Journey Through Vanley Burke’s History, Soho House Gallery (Birmingham) // co-commissioned by Birmingham Museums Trust and The Commonwealth Games
2021 Portals, Eastside Projects (Birmingham) - Exhibiting Artists: Jade Foster, Marlene Smith, Rianna Jade Parker, Vanley Burke
2021 LOOP, Eastside Projects (Birmingham) // co-curated with Eastside Projects & Harold Offeh. Co-commissioned by Eastside Projects and Birmingham International Dance Festival
2021 UP:RISE, International Curators Forum Study Day, BOM (Birmingham) // as part of Baff Akoto’s public art exhibition UP:RISE
2019 Poet & Prophetess: Kingdom Return, F-K Kollektiv (Berlin) // curated for Opashona Ghosh’s solo show Till Kingdom Come
2017 gal-dem x Contemporary &: Creating Spaces for Women of Colour in Digital Media, ifa Gallery (Berlin) // co-curated with Will Fredo
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Dark Advances: ‘Affect Aliens’ & Revolutionary Despair, Motto Books (Berlin)
2021 SUMMER CAMP, Eastside Projects (Birmingham) - Digital
2019 Laboratory for Feeling Right, Creamcake: 3hd Festival at Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin)
2018 sync, psych, self (sic): the self-portrait exhibition, F-K Kollektiv (Berlin)
SELECTED
PERFORMANCES
2022 MY BODILY REMAINS, Tai Shani, Fabric (London)
2022 Miserere, Jesse Darling, St James Piccadilly (London)
2022 Tales of the Orisa’s w/ Lekan Babalola, Symphony Hall (Birmingham)
2021 Pop-Kultur Festival (Berlin)
2021 Tramlines Festival (Sheffield)
2020 The R.A.P Party, Afropolitan Festival, BOZAR (Brussels)
2020 The Orator as Non Mythic, Oscar Murillo: Horizontal Darkness In Search of Solidarity finissage, Kunstverein (Hamburg)
2019 The Morning After Love, Manifestos For Queer Futures Festival, Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin)
2019 The R.A.P Party, B-Side Hip Hop Festival, Birmingham Hippodrome (Birmingham)
2018 Live Writing, Berlin to Lagos: Mobility & Heritage, Gallery Wedding (Berlin)
2018 Poetry Meets Jazz: PARATAXE Symposium III—AfroBerlin, Literarisches Colloquium (Berlin)
READINGS
2020 Recession Grimace: Jesse Darling & Friends, Klosterruine (Berlin)
2020 Bedtime Stories #3: Candice Nembhard and Lauryn Youden (Hosted by Olamiju Fajemisin - Digital)
2019 Deutsche Antidiskriminierungstage w/ Black Brown Berlin, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin)
2019 The Blood of a Poet I, Roter Salon/Volksbühne (Berlin)
2019 Poet & Prophetess, Broken Dimanche Press Roundtable, Tropez (Berlin)
2019 Fiction Canteen, Unabhängigen Lesereihen Festival (Nürnberg)
2019 Live Reading, GeoVanna Gonzalez: When We Open Every Window finissage, gr_und project space (Berlin)
2017 A History of Remembering, Kunsthalle am Hamburger Platz (Berlin)
PANELIST & TALKS
2021 UP:RISE, International Curators Forum Study Day, BOM (Birmingham)
2021 Music & Migration, Pop-Kultur Festival (Berlin)
2021 Studio Visit: Will Fredo, Eastside Projects (Birmingham - Digital)
2021 Show and Tea: okcandice, Activation TV x SoMad NYC (New York City - Digital)
2021 Networks of Pride: Creativity, Queerness, and Blackness, New Art Exchange (Nottingham - Digital)
2020 Studio Visit: Harold Offeh, Eastside Projects (Birmingham - Digital)
2020 Residing In The Borderlands, Savvy Contemporary (Berlin - Digital)
2019 Poet & Prophetess: Kingdom Return, F-K Kollektiv (Berlin)
2018 UK/Germany 2018 Friendship Stories: Amanda & Candice, British Council Germany (Berlin)
2018 sync, psych, self (sic): the self-portrait exhibition artists talk, F-K Kollektiv (Berlin)
2017 gal-dem x Contemporary &: Creating Spaces for Women of Colour in Digital Media, ifa Gallery (Berlin)
SCREENINGS
2021 Portals, Eastside Projects Birmingham
2020 BIPOC Film Society, Oyoun, Berlin
2020 Beijing Queer Film Festival, Beijing
2020 Alvozay Festival, District, Berlin
2020 BIPOC Film Society, Oyoun, Berlin
2020 ALL FRUITS RIPE III, Soho House, Berlin
2019 ALL FRUITS RIPE II, be’kech, Berlin
2019 ALL FRUITS RIPE I, Trauma Bar & Kino, Berlin
2019 Manifestos for Queer Futures Festival, HAU, Berlin
2019 Berlin In*vision - Seminar & Festival
2019 ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, Berlin - Shortlist for Best Poetry Film
2019 Maverick Women & The Moon w/ Margaret Atwood, Moon Festival, London
WORKSHOPS (Facilitator)
2021 Imagining Queer Histories, Black Queer Writing Group (digital) - founded by Deseree, supported by Arts Council England
2021 An Ode to the Ghazal, Pop-Kultur Festival (Berlin)
2021 Poetry & Music, Eastside Projects (Birmingham - Digital)
2020 Sleeping Voices: Awakening The Lost, Night School Berlin x Changing Room (Berlin)
2019 Poet & Prophetess: On Writing and Performance, Altes Finanzamt (Berlin)
AWARDS & GRANTS
2023 Adaptations Practice Development Award, Artquest London
2022/23 Jerwood Arts Curatorial Accelerator Fellowship
2021 BEYOND #2 Film Grant, Film and Vid Umbrella
ADVISORY PANELS
2022 Government Art Collection - CVAN West Midlands
PRESS
2020 Queer Direct
2020 KAPUT Mag
2020 e-flux
2019 Lit Radio for ULF Festival
homepage images by Katrina Singleton