Length: 09:38

Closed captions are available by clicking the “CC” button on the video. 

returning is a new short video work by Okwui Okpokwasili with Peter Born, created while in-residence at Danspace’s historic venue in St. Mark’s Church, commissioned and premiered at Danspace Project for Platform 2021: The Dream of the Audience. returning had its digital premiere on Friday, June 4, 2021 and was followed by a live discussion between the two collaborators.

Multi-disciplinary artist Okwui Okpokwasili co-curated Platform 2020: Utterances from the Chorus with Judy Hussie-Taylor. This was one of the last works to be presented at Danspace Project inside of the St. Mark’s Church sanctuary before the pandemic shut down in March 2020. The Platform explored collective song and the body as a site of resistance and transformation. The centerpiece of Platform 2020 was the durational, slow walking, and vocal practice of Sitting On a Man’s Head, created by Okpokwasili and longtime collaborator, Peter Born. Over a year later Okwui returns to Danspace’s Sanctuary with Peter to create, an animated soundscape inside St. Mark’s Church. Delving further into embodied protest and song, Okpokwasili continues to explore slowness, walking, taking the first step, getting lost, and returning.

Watch the recorded post performance discussion between Peter and Okwui below.