Jenn Kidwell Studio Visit: The Blackening

Photo by Ryan Collerd, courtesy of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

April 16, 2021 | 1-2 p.m. EDT
Virtual via Zoom
Free and open to the public.

Theater artist Jenn Kidwell joins the Bryn Mawr community for a teaching and performance residency in April 2021. Kidwell’s new project, The Blackening, is a concert ritual that celebrates the demise of Amerikkkan hegemony. On Friday, April 16, Kidwell will share material and process from her two-week exploration, joined by collaborator Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, followed by a Q&A with Performing Arts Series Coordinator Sarah Bishop-Stone. This residency is a collaboration between the Performing Arts Series and the Bryn Mawr College Theater Program.

About Jenn Kidwell

Jennifer Kidwell is a performing artist. Upcoming projects: "Those With Two Clocks," "The Blackening." Recent projects: "Underground Railroad Game" (2017 Obie Award for Best New American Theatre Work; 2018 Edinburgh Fringe First Award; Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes nominations); Adrienne Truscott’s "Still Asking for It" (Joe’s Pub); Jaamil Olawole Kosoko’s "Chameleon" (assistant director); "Home" (Geoff Sobelle, 2018 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production); "Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed" (Dan Hurlin); "I Understand Everything Better" (David Neumann/advanced beginner group, 2015 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production); "Being/With" (Nichole Canuso Dance Company); "Antigone" (The Wilma Theater); "Superterranean," "Fire Burns Hot: Little Reno!," "I Promised Myself to Live Faster" and "99 Break-Ups" (Pig Iron Theatre Company), "Dick's Last Stand" (Whitney Biennial 2014, as Donelle Woolford), and "Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter" (Robert Wilson/Toshi Reagon/Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon).

  • Wilma Theater Associated Artist, co-founder of JACK.
  • Writing published in movement research Performance Journal #45 and at hyperallergic.com. 2020
  • Visiting Artist Duke University, 2021
  • Visiting Artist University of Pennsylvania
  • 2013 TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, 2015 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant, 2016 Pew Fellow, 2017 Independence Fellowship, and 2020 Ruthie Award and Hodder Fund Grant.

About Jaamil Olawale Kosoko

Jaamil Olawale Kosoko is a Nigerian American performance artist, poet, and curator originally from Detroit, MI. He is a 2020 Artist Residency Award Recipient from the Wexner Center for 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, and a 2017 Cave Canem Poetry Fellow. His creative practice draws from Black study, queer theories of the body, weaving together visual performance, lecture, ritual, and spiritual practice. His most recent works American Chameleon: The Living Installments (2020), 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), and Zürich MOVES! (Switzerland) among others. He is the author of two chapbooks and his poems and essays have been included in The American Poetry Review, The Dunes Review, The Broad Street Review, among others. Visit jaamil.com for more information. IG: jaamil_means_beauty