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
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
sweat variant Company Credits:
Okwui and Peter - Co-Artistic Directors
Kearra Gopee - Studio and Initiatives Manager
Annabel Heacock - Company Producer
Linsey Bostwick - Partnership Development
Sarah Lou Haddad - Administrative Assistant
Sonia Xiang - Studio Apprentice
Janet Stapleton - Press Representative
adaku, part 2 is commissioned by Aspen Art Museum, The Wexner Center for the Arts, and Yale Schwarzman Center as lead co-commissioners. adaku, part 2 is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Walker Art Center, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, DiverseWorks, ASU Gammage, CAP UCLA 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.
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