Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is a multi-spirited Nigerian-American poet, curator, and performance artist originally from Detroit, MI. Kosoko’s work in performance is rooted in embodied ritual practice, poetics, Black critical studies, and queer theories of the body as a means to conjure and craft perpetual modes of freedom, healing, and care when/where/however possible. Recent awards include: 2020 Pew Fellowship, 2020-21 Resident Artist at the Wexner Center for the Arts, 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, 2019 NPN Development Fund Award, 2019-21 Movement Research Artist in Residence, 2018-20 Live Feed Artist at New York Live Arts, 2017-19 Princeton Arts Fellow, 2019 Red Bull Writing Fellow, 2017 MAP Fund recipient, and a 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Fellow. His works have toured internationally to South Africa, Europe, Canada, and throughout the US appearing in festivals and venues such as The Centre for the Less Good Idea (Johannesburg), Fusebox Festival (Austin), PICA | Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Tanz im August (Berlin), Moving in November (Finland), Within Practice (Sweden),TakeMeSomewhere (UK), Brighton Festival (UK), Oslo Teaterfestival (Norway), and Zürich MOVES! (Switzerland) among others. He is the author of two chapbooks: Animal in Cyberspace and Notes on An Urban Killfloor. His poems and essays have been included in The American Poetry Review, The Dunes Review, The Broad Street Review, among others. Season 1 of his interview-based podcast, American Chameleon can be found on all podcast platforms. In Fall 2020, he was the Alma Hawkins Visiting Chair in the World Arts and Cultures Department at UCLA and is currently a Lecturer in the Arts at Princeton University.

Organized by Neil Greenberg.

This event is part of PERFORMANCE IN THE AGE OF PANDEMIC, a virtual, public-facing event series exploring the context of the radical reorganization of life under the current COVID-19 pandemic and other health crises such as the AIDS and 1918 influenza pandemics. Guest artists, curators, activists and scholars will consider how performing artists have responded to and been affected by these worldwide epidemics, the varied forms and functions of the work created during these times, and potential longer term changes that may result, while also making space to consider the state of arts presenting institutions and infrastructure in the wake of COVID-19. Hosted by faculty from the Department of the Arts at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School. All events are free and open to the public, but prior registration is required.

Zoom link will be sent in advance of the event.