MASS MoCA

Poor People's TV Room examines both the historical and ongoing role of Nigerian women's collective action for social change and change as well as their cultural erasure. The non-documentary piece draws on the Women's War of 1929, where Nigerian women resisted British colonial rule, and the viral Bring Back Our Girls movement, raising awareness of Boko Haram's 2014 kidnappings of over 300 Chibok girls. Collaborating with director/designer Peter Born and an intergenerational cast of three women, choreographer Okwui Okpokwasili blends traditional Nigerian song and dance with her own contemporary, interdisciplinary approach, which itself mixes movement, song, text, film, theater and installation