CounterCurrent19 - Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born: Sitting on a Man’s Head

The practice of “sitting on a man” was one of the many disruptive durational protest practices used by women in Southeastern Nigeria, it was a traditional exercise of their collective power and it became a vital tool throughout the period of British colonial rule.

In Sitting on a Man’s Head, the space of restoration and restitution is considered. Where the women in Southeastern Nigeria had long-standing kinship and communal bonds, shared languages and shared concerns, Okpokwasili and Born consider making a space for the formation of new bonds of kinship around common questions.

Working with artists based in Houston, Okpokwasili and Born hope to use the tools of their 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?