Cherice Harrison-Nelson is an educator, narrative visual artist, Maroon Queen, performance artist, and arts administrator. As the co-founder and curator of the former Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame, she was the co-editor of 11 publications and coordinated numerous exhibitions and panel discussions focused on African inspired cultural traditions. Her creative expressions have been performed, presented/exhibited throughout the city and world. She performs annually at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Guardians Institute’s Donald Harrison, Sr. Museum. She contributed to original hand-beaded Carnival Day attire acquired by the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC. Her production credits include: a DVD documentary, music CD, original plays, and the award-winning narrative short film, “Keeper of the Flame.”  She is the recipient of several honors including: Fulbright Scholarship, 2016 United States Artist Fellowship and a 2020-21 Joan Mitchell Artist-in-Residence award. She approaches her art as a cognitive provocateur, with the specific intent to engage observers through imagery and performance that simultaneously explore classism and other limiting/confining norms. Her work is primarily autobiographical as well as simultaneously ancient and contemporary.  Currently, she has a solo show, Maroon Queen Reesie, at the New Orleans African American and appears as a contemporary Plague Doctor character in performance installations at sites of injustice.