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Come Dance With Me explores the stories of dance in the Black Diaspora across history, centering gender and sexuality-marginalized folks. Inspired by nwaọ’s grandfather’s funeral in Nigeria, where folks danced more than they mourned, moving their bodies to the sounds of the drums and the Ọja, an Igbo flute, to honor and celebrate his life, nwaọ delves into Black people’s connection to dance. From Caribbean Carnival–the creative and artistic expression of dispossessed people–to weddings to funerals, we lose ourselves in the moment, shifting our bodies to our cultural rhythms and communing with our ancestors. nwaọ invites you to come and dance.
Named after Nwaobiala, a group of Nigerian women who danced as resistance, I follow in the footsteps of my unyielding ancestors—dancing against marginalization by piecing together forgotten histories and inventing new memories. As a Nigerian-American, queer, and agender multidisciplinary artist and archivist, I co-invent futures of freedom and memory with and for LGBTQ+ communities in the Black Diaspora. My work, driven by a generational passion for storytelling, serves as a conduit for communing with our past, present, and future.
nwaọ is a Nigerian-American, queer and agender multi-disciplinary artist and archivist. Their work is a critical analysis and reimagining of Black physical and spiritual being within African historical and cultural contexts. nwaọ drives conversations about queerness and gender identity within the collective, cultural, and contemporary memory of the African Diaspora. They were a 2024 VisArts Fleur and Charles Bresler Resident, a 2020 Bakanal de Afrique Artist Fellow and a 2020 Kolaj Institute Collage Lab Artist. As a DJ, nwaọ mixes Afro-Diasporic genres to cultivate spaces of freedom and community. They have deejayed for crowds in Nairobi, Kenya, Cape Town, South Africa, Accra, Ghana, London, UK, and the DMV, USA. nwaọ is the former bassist for the Nairobi-based band Something African.
OPENING CELEBRATION: FRIDAY, JANUARY 31 | 7-9 PM Enjoy new exhibitions, music, drinks, eats, and more! RSVP
Creating Video Collages with Personal Archives: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5 | 6-8 PM Join 2024 Bresler Resident nwaọ for an interactive digital workshop where you’ll learn to create video collages using your smartphone. RSVP
GALLERY TOURS Let us be your guide! Schedule a free school field trip or group tour of our exhibitions. LEARN MORE
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