For the health and safety of our community, all public performances through March 28 have been cancelled. This includes all remaining Platform 2020 events, as well as Megan Williams Dance Projects (Community ACCESS).
Okwui’s 2016 research into Nigerian women’s embodied protest resulted in the durational performance created by Okwui and Peter.
The practice known as “sitting on a man” was a disruptive durational practice and a public act of shaming carried out by a collective of women in Southeastern Nigeria. It involved gathering in the private courtyard of a colonial official, dancing and singing songs that expressed their grievances and was designed to embarrass the official until he promised to address their concerns. This practice was used by women as a critical tool to protect their economic and social interests.
Rather than “shaming” or seeking redress, Okpokwasili’s and Born’s Sitting On a Man’s Head is an attempt to create a “space of restoration and restitution,” write Okpokwasili and Born. “We are engaged in a creative practice concerned with the formation of new bonds of kinship. In collaboration with a select group of artists, we use the tools of our performance practice to build a space for the creation of an improvisational public song composed of aural and choreographic gestures. Can a shared creative practice be generative and generous while also being instructive in imagining new possibilities of communal relations?”
The work features a rotating chorus of performers - visit website for roster.
Part of PLATFORM 2020: Utterances from the Chorus
