photo by Barsbold Enkhbold
adaku, part 2
2026
The adaku trilogy is a speculative mythology about how one family in precolonial West Africa becomes entangled in the transatlantic slave trade. In part two of this mythology, sweat variant investigates the embodied impact of this violent rupture, while also considering the devastating consequences of the theft of artifacts designed to protect ancestral bonds. Set in a near future United States, adaku, part 2 excavates the consequences of erasure when events lead to sudden remembering. What is unleashed in the imagination of a young woman who's been led to believe she has no history worth remembering? What are the multitude of futures she can now imagine? sweat variant’s multidisciplinary approach considers cycles of ritual and repair.
Co-Creators: Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born
Written by Okwui Okpokwasili
Director/Production Designer: Peter Born
Performers: Bria Bacon, Audrey Hailes, Okwui Okpokwasili, Ny Opong, AJ Wilmore
Stage and Company Manager: Alayna McCabe
Production Managers: Michaelangelo DeSerio, Jared Klein, Brian Scott
Dramaturg: Katherine Profeta
Access Dramaturg: Kayla Hamilton
Producer: Annabel Heacock
Producing Strategist: Linsey Bostwick
Strategic Consultant: Cathy Zimmerman
Wailing chorus: Rena Anakwe, Holland Andrews, Olithea Anglin, Bria Bacon, yuniya edi kwon, Kris Lee, Okwui Okpokwasili, and AJ Wilmore
Wailing chorus recording engineer: Vishal Nayak
adaku, part 2 is commissioned by Aspen Art Museum, The Wexner Center for the Arts, and Yale Schwarzman Center as lead commissioners, and is co-commissioned by the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN). adaku, part 2 is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by ASU Gammage, CAP UCLA, DiverseWorks, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Walker Art Center, and NPN. For more information www.npnweb.org. adaku, part 2 was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and The Mellon Foundation. adaku, part 2 is also supported by the Harkness Foundation for Dance. Thank you to the J.E. Commission Fund and David Thomson for additional support for the development of adaku, part 2.
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For booking information, contact Lotus Arts Management, Sophie Myrtil-McCourty, President, at 72-11 Austin Street, #371 Forest Hills, NY 11375. Tel: 347.721.8724; email: sophie@lotusartsmgmt.com website: www.lotusartsmgmt.com