//shrouded\\
Explore the fugitive possibilities of invisibility and escape in //shrouded\\ by multidisciplinary artist jaamil olawale kosoko, offering a unique mash-up of poetry, sound, visual performance, and movement.
by jaamil olawale kosoko
Fri, Apr 17, 2026 7:30 PM
Sat, Apr 18, 2026 8:00 PM
Sun, Apr 19, 2026 5:30 PM
Icebox Project Space
Walk-up tickets ($5-50) available for all shows after online sales end!
Multi-spirited Nigerian American choreographer, author, performance artist, and curator jaamil olawale kosoko's award-winning work is rooted in a complex interdisciplinary practice that merges theater, video, sculpture, and the exploration of queer Black theory. Their new work, //shrouded\\, is a living poem and performative ceremony that recasts the body as an archive of memory and transformation. Performed by kosoko and their ensemble of visionary collaborators, //shrouded\\ unfolds in a shifting veil of silks that conceal and reveal states of metamorphosis. As performers slip between presence and absence, mourning and joy, figure and shadow, kosoko dares to ask what it means to choose to go unseen—in an age shaped by surveillance and spectacle. A unique mash up of poetry, sound, and movement, //shrouded\\ invites audiences into the communal act of reimagining the future. *This is a work-in-development performance.
This show is for you if…
you like poetry, experimental visual performance, and good music.
TEAM CREDITS
concept, co-director, performer, writer - jaamil olawale kosoko
performer - Mawu Ama Ma’at Gora
performer - Song Tucker
cellist - Black Maij
composer, sound designer, musician - Ev-Asis Saunders
co-director - Kingsley Ibeneche
video designer - Jordan Deal
lighting designer - Connor Sales
costume & wardrobe supervisor - Philip Errico
scenic supervisor - RED
cinematographer - Alvis Mosely
stage manager - Cory Seals
creative producer and general manager - ShowShow
Jenni Bowman, founder & creative producer
Melissa Kievman, creative producer
Jason Goodman, associate producer
Reba Gazdik, administrative associate
Artist support for these performances of //shrouded\\ is provided by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, and additional artist support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Bogliasco Center in Italy, Shadowcliff Artist Residency, The New School, Cannonball Festival, showshow, and friends of kosoko performance studio.
jaamil olawale kosoko is a multi-spirited Nigerian American author, performance artist, educator, and curator of Yoruba and Natchez descent, originally from Detroit, MI. Their conceptual and emergent practice fluidly moves across live performance, video, sculpture, and poetry integrating ritual, spiritual inquiry, and embodied poetics. Through Black critical studies and queer theories of the body, kosoko conjures radical strategies for freedom, healing, and care, offering an expansive vision of artistic and social transformation.
kosoko’s interdisciplinary work explores emergent Black queer theory, critical rest-care strategies, and the politics of visibility and fugitivity. Their projects—ranging from multimedia installations to performative lectures—bridge experimental art with community-driven engagement. As a curator, kosoko has held positions at New York Live Arts and FringeArts. In 2022 they curated Portal For(e) the Ephemeral Passage (Wexner Center for the Arts and co-curated the 2019 Black Poetry Conference at Princeton University.
Their global impact as an experimental performance and film maker include projects such as Voncena’s Spell (2025), The (chrysalis) Archives (2024), Black Body Amnesia (2022), Chameleon: A Visual Album (2020), Séancers (2017), and the Bessie Award-nominated #negrophobia (2015)— presenting at leading international institutions and festivals, including EMPAC, New York Live Arts, The Guggenheim Museum, ICA at VCU, Wexner Center for the Arts, Fusebox Festival, Tanz im August (Berlin), Blackbox (Oslo), Beursschouwburg (Brussels), The Centre for the Less Good Idea (Johannesburg), Berne Festival, and Montréal Arts Interculturels, among many others. Visit jaamil.com for more information.
