sweat variant—Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born: adaku, part 2

Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born bring adaku, part 2 to the Walker Art Center on May 7 and 8, 2027. The two work together as sweat variant, the collaborative practice of Nigerian American choreographer Okpokwasili and designer Born. This particular piece is a Walker Commission and sits within the center's Embodying Lost Histories series, which features Black speculative fiction by artists of the African diaspora.

adaku, part 2 is the second installment of a trilogy that spans time and place, centered on a precolonial West African family entangled in the transatlantic slave trade. This part follows a young woman descendant in a near-future United States, whose sudden revelation sparks questions around ritual and repair. The work is part of a larger conversation the series is having about what scholar Saidiya Hartman calls "critical fabulation"—combining archival research with narrative invention to confront the legacy of colonialism by reimagining the lives of those who were erased. A content note: the work includes references to slavery.

Okpokwasili is known for her trenchant explorations of Black womanhood and has collaborated with artists across genres, from Carrie Mae Weems to Jay-Z; Dance Magazine called her "a riveting presence in her own unclassifiable creations."

Both performances are at 7:30 PM in the McGuire Theater at the Walker in Minneapolis, and tickets start at $20.