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IMPRESSIONS: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born "adaku, part 1: the road opens" at BAM Fisher

Conception and writing: Okwui Okpokwasili

Direction: Peter Born and Okwui Okpokwasili

Original songs: Okwui Okpokwasili  //  Sound score: Peter Born

Movement Development: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born in collaboration with Audrey Hailes, AJ Wilmore, mayfield brooks, McKenzie Frye, Stacy Lynn Smith, and Samita Sinha

Set/lighting/video design: Peter Born  //  Sound design: Peter Born and Will Johnson

Musical director: Deah Love Harriott   //  Dramaturgy: Katherine Profeta

Costume co-design and fabrication: James Gibbel

Performers: Okwui Okpokwasili, Audrey Hailes, AJ Wilmore, mayfield brooks, McKenzie Frye, Stacy Lynn Smith, and Samita Sinha

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in the thrumming womblike dark

an abstract landscape receives and reflects

shattered yet whole

full of light

full of shadow

 

a tight-knit cluster of powerful beings

an insistent circling

bare feet pound and slap

to a chant borne on the rhythm of breath

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ribs pop

hips dig

arms whirl

bodies many

spirits one

 

each one leads in turn

a ritual of protection and empowerment

digging down

breaking out

building

morphing

striving 

rising

up from the ground

down from the sky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

spines proud

chins strong

skirts lifted

their inhales harmonize

their exhales percuss

a song of the body

a world made flesh

a lifeblood stronger than time

 

light from within

cupped in cradling palms

held heart to heart

as healing or revelation

a dangerous power

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

circling circling circling

voices fill the darkness

the ever-present rhythms of life

shifting 

catching

a contagion

a question

a call that demands response

a past that commands a future

 

the vital seed

hidden to survive savage nightmares

to grow in defiance

potent with purpose

on the righteous road

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the seed of doubt

planted by curiosity

by the pleasure of surrender

by the sharp thrill of fear

her spine arcs on the precipice

heedless of peril

in memories and dreams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

quiet without

riot within

the unthinkable suddenly so simple

so easy to disappear

yet so hard to contend with the void

the heaviest weightless load

borne together

 

the air rumbles

the shattered whole unfurls

crinkles in the flashing dark

her heartbeat shines

as the great beyond closes upon her

the road opens

but at what cost

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