Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, a multi-spirited Nigerian American choreographer, performance artist, poet, and curator originally from Detroit, MI, is a 2020 Pew Fellow in the Arts, 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Choreography, 2019 NPN Development Fund Awardee, a 2017-19 Princeton Arts Fellow, 2019 Red Bull Writing Fellow, 2018 NEFA NDP Production Grant recipient, 2017 MAP Fund recipient, and a 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Fellow. Kosoko's creative practice draws from Black study and queer theories of the body, weaving together visual performance, lecture, ritual, and spiritual practice. Their most recent work Chameleon (The Living Installments) premiered virtually in April 2020. His previous works: Séancers (2017) and the Bessie nominated #negrophobia (2015), have toured internationally appearing in major festivals including: Tanz im August (Berlin), Moving in November (Finland), Within Practice (Sweden), TakeMeSomewhere (UK), Brighton Festival (UK), Oslo Teaterfestival (Norway), Center for the Less Good Idea (South Africa), and Zürich MOVES! (Switzerland) among others. He teaches regularly at Princeton University.
They worked on their book Black Body Amnesia while at MacDowell.
Portrait by Ryan Collerd
