Okwui Okpokwasili
Lead Creative

Okwui Okpokwasili is a Brooklyn-based performing artist working at the intersection of theater, dance, and installation. Her work considers the dynamics of interiority and psychic space in shaping relationships, sociality and memory grounded in the body and perspective of the Afro-femme. With Director/Designer Peter Born, Okpokwasili creates collaborative multidisciplinary projects including the Bessie Award-winning Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance, Bessie-winning Bronx Gothic, and Bronx Gothic: The Oval, Poor People's TV Room, Poor People's TV Room Solo, When I Return Who Will Receive Me, and Adaku's Revolt. In the last few years, Okpokwasili has been working on Sitting On A Man's Head a collaborative, improvisational sonic praxis with multiple artists inspired by the precolonial embodied protest practices of Southeastern Nigerian women called Sitting On A Man. The last iteration of this practice was an anchoring event in the Danspace Platform: Utterances from the Chorus, which she co-curated along with the team lead by Judy Hussie-Taylor at Danspace Project in NYC. As a performer, Okpokwasili frequently collaborates with award-winning director Ralph Lemon. She is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow, a 2015-2017 Randjelovic/Stryker New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA.), a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellow and is currently a UNC Chapel Hill CPA fellow. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Doris Duke Artist Award, United States Artist Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award, and Foundation for Contemporary Art Award. Her performance work has been commissioned and presented by the Walker Art Center, Danspace Project, Performance Space New York, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, MCA Chicago, ICA Boston, the 10th Annual Berlin Biennale, The Young Vic (London), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, and New York Live Arts. As a performer, Okpokwasili frequently collaborates with award-winning director Ralph Lemon. She is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow, a 2015-2017 Randjelovic/Stryker New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA.), a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellow and is currently a UNC Chapel Hill CPA fellow. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Doris Duke Artist Award, United States Artist Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award, and Foundation for Contemporary Art Award. Her performance work has been commissioned and presented by the Walker Art Center, Danspace Project, Performance Space New York, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, MCA Chicago, ICA Boston, the 10th Annual Berlin Biennale, The Young Vic (London), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, and New York Live Arts.

As a performer, Okpokwasili frequently collaborates with award-winning director Ralph Lemon. She is a 2018 MacArthur Fellow, a 2015-2017 Randjelovic/Stryker New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist (RCA.), a 2018 Princeton University Hodder Fellow and is currently a UNC Chapel Hill CPA fellow. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Doris Duke Artist Award, United States Artist Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award, and Foundation for Contemporary Art Award. Her performance work has been commissioned and presented by the Walker Art Center, Danspace Project, Performance Space New York, Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, MCA Chicago, ICA Boston, the 10th Annual Berlin Biennale, The Young Vic (London), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, and New York Live Arts.

Instagram: @bornokwui