Nina Wu

HI, I’M NINA WU (she/they)

I’m a queer, second-gen, Chinese-American, interdisciplinary dancer, artist, and educator.

For me, home is sunshine, warm humid air that feels like a hug, and salt water. Home is the journey from southern China to Florida. My dad dreamt that my name would be 吴雪, but it wasn’t until I was 18 when I experience my first real snow. I was raised on fish eyes, Lunchables, Celine Dion, Teresa Teng, Chinese propaganda music, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, MTV, and Dragonball Z.

Home is also the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and a vibrant community of radical QTBIPOC educators, artists, and healers practicing mutual aid and collectively working towards abolition. Home is in Huichin, occupied Muwekma and Chochenyo Ohlone land (Oakland).

I studied Math, Visual Art, and Education at Duke. I was a classroom teacher, worked in an art gallery, and now design math games and curriculum. I dance professionally and continue to make art when it calls.

I believe everything can be a source of inspiration, every experience is in conversation with each other, that it’s all connected. I operate from an interdisciplinary and intersectional place, which is why this site has a little bit everything - there’s math in my art, dance in my math, and art in my dance. But it’s all in service of connecting to magic, cultivating community, and dismantling systems of oppression. So whatever reason brought you here, may you find what you’re looking for, along with an unexpected nugget of something else.