#negrophobia

#negrophobia at Tanz im August Festival, Berlin, Germany, 2016.

#negrophobia examines the erotic fear associated with Black bodies inside the context of the contemporary American project. The work is both performance lecture and rituals séance. jaamil olawale kosoko juxtaposes interior and exterior landscapes to expose a confessional identity-mashup where visual and performance aesthetics collide in a face-off of self-revelation, ecstatic theatricality, and discomfort.

Aggressively multi-disciplinary, the space in which the piece is performed is in many ways an installation piece itself––the audience experiences the work confronted by a shrine to dead black people and the disemboweled library of writings of black intellectuals. Revealing contradictory feelings of desire and fear, #negrophobia references issues related to grief, misogyny, trans identity, and Black patriarchal constructs of masculinity. Together with model and performance artist IMMA, and composer Jeremy Toussaint Baptiste, kosoko presents the audience with powerfully staged bodies, forcing them to contemplate how they might also be involved in the construction of forms of racism.

People

jaamil olawale kosoko

James Doolittle (video designer)
Jonathan González (stage manager/lighting assistant)
IMMA (co-choreographer/performer)
Andre Lumpkin (lighting and technical support)
Aaron Philip Maier (studio assistant)
Mersiha Mesihovic (dramaturg/lighting assistant)
Emily Reilly (publicist)
Hillary Richardson (artist assistant)
Eli Tamondong (studio assistant)
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste (sound engineer/video & technical support/sonic accompaniment/video designer/performer)
Ricarrdo Valentine (stage manager)
Kate Watson-Wallace (set designer)
Leonie Wichmann (stage manager)
Serena Wong (lighting designer)

Past Performances

April 19, 2018
Mousonturm, Frankfurt, DE
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November 2017
SPIELART Festival, Munich, DE

September 29-30, 2017
Beursschouwburg, Brussels, BE
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March 2017
TakeMeSomewhere, Glasgow, UK
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March 18 and 22, 2017
SICK! Festival at Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts, Brighton, UK
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March 12-13, 2017
Oslo Internasjonale Teaterfestival, Oslo, NO
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March 17, 2017
Zürich MOVES! Festival, Zurich, CH
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August 2016
Tanz im August Festival, Berlin, Germany

January 8-11, and 17, 2016
American Realness, Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY
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September 24-26, 2015
Gibney, New York, NY