What precedes a motion that is true? Can a motion come from the deepest psychic stillness within? Okwui Okpokwasili’s astounding durational practice expands quotidienne gesture into portal, lost and essential, in search of sacred past and better future. To say that she explores bodies as sites of resistance and transformation isn’t enough – she insists that it is so, insists it, fiercely, with her own body. From the semi-autobiographical, intimate, one-woman show Bronx Gothic to Poor People’s TV Room and her intense collaborations with choreographer Ralph Lemon, Okwui Okpokwasili’s experimental work as a performer, choreographer and writer pushes the limits of her physical endurance as well as the limits categorization. A 2018 MacArthur Fellow (among countless other honors, residencies and awards) “Okpokwasili is making visible the aspects of black womanhood that have been left out of dominant cultural narratives and evoking in audiences a profound sense of empathy for the pain, resilience, fears, and desires that each of her gestures makes manifest.”
If you aren’t familiar with Okpokwasili’s work and this all sounds difficult to picture, start with this New York Times article about Sitting On A Man’s Head, her piece exploring slow, communal walking. Central questions of mind-expanding simplicity run through the piece, (What are you carrying and how does it carry you? How could we weave a collective song and what would that sound like?) and remind us of how much is possible in body, mind and presence. If, like me, you are trying to put your New Year’s resolutions into practice in February, start here. Okpokwasili’s practice — fierce and cellular – is also a loving reminder that every gesture is a motion toward sacred meaning and a step in the right direction, if we will just slow down to see it.
It was a deep honor and pleasure to spend some time talking with and learning from this virtuoso. It was also fantastic happiness to realize that our brothers are deep and old family friends. May we all continue the slow walk together.
Love, Tift
The Spark | Okwui Okpokwasili