Okwui Okpokwasili is a Brooklyn-based writer, performer and choreographer. With collaborator Peter Born, Okpokwasili creates multidisciplinary projects. New York productions include: Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance (recipient of a 2010 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Production); Bronx Gothic (2014 “Bessie” Award), and Poor People’s TV Room. Okpokwasili frequently collaborates with award-winning director Ralph Lemon. Her residencies and awards include: MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship (2018), MANCC (2012, 2016), NYFA Fellowship in Choreography (2013), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Extended Life Program (2014-15), The Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Artist Grants in Dance (2014), Creative Capital Grantee (2016), NEFA, and NDP. She was a Randjelovic/Stryker Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts from 2015-2017 and a 2018-2019 Hodder Fellow at Princeton.