#negrophobia examines the erotic fear associated with Black bodies inside the context of the contemporary American project. The work is both performance lecture and rituals séance. Jaamil Olawale Kosoko juxtaposes interior and exterior landscapes to expose a confessional identity-mashup where visual and performance aesthetics collide in a face-off of self-revelation, ecstatic theatricality, and discomfort.
Aggressively multi-disciplinary, the space in which the piece is performed is in many ways an installation piece itself––the audience experiences the work confronted by a shrine to dead black people and the disemboweled library of writings of black intellectuals. Revealing contradictory feelings of desire and fear, #negrophobia references issues related to grief, misogyny, trans identity, and Black patriarchal constructs of masculinity. Together with model and performance artist IMMA, and composer Jeremy Toussaint Baptiste, Kosoko presents the audience with powerfully staged bodies, forcing them to contemplate how they might also be involved in the construction of forms of racism.