MIAMI—Black Male Revisited, an original work by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, debuts at Miami Theater Center on Dec. 13, and runs through Dec. 22 in the 50-seat black box studio adjacent to its MainStage, 9806 N.E. Second Ave., Miami Shores.
Part visual installation, part live performance, Kosoko asks viewers to reconsider their impressions of the black male body via original poetry, live music, wild theatrical antics and live sculpture.
A New York-based Nigerian-American performance artist, poet, choreographer, curator and producer, Kosoko contextualizes the criminalization, demonization and sexualization of the black male body and hence, black male identity, with a fierce sensitivity and vulnerability.
Kosoko’s performance collapses the boundary between fiction and reality, so raw and real that audiences won’t know whether to laugh, cry, yell obscenities, or run for cover.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art exhibit Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary Art, Kosoko says his work – which was inspired by the Whitney exhibition – is an “attempt to begin a dialogue about issues of visibility for black male performance and visual artists, using my body, my history, and my work as the focal point to discuss themes of black masculinity from a first person perspective.”
Made possible by a $100,000 Knights Arts Challenge grant provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Black Male Revisited will be directed by Kosoko, with support from movement/performance consultant Sidra Bell, dramaturge Kate Watson-Wallace, and studio assistant Aaron Maier.
“For our cultural community to thrive, artists need spaces like Miami Theater Center to share new works, ideas and perspectives,” says Dennis Scholl, Vice President for Arts at Knight Foundation.
Performances contain full male nudity as well as adult themes and language.
The Friday and Saturday shows, Dec. 13 and 14, 20 and 21, are at 8 p.m.; the Sunday performance, Dec. 22, is at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 per person. For further information call 305-751-9550 or visit mtcmiami.org.
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