INTERVENTIONS: my tongue is a blade

Cre­at­ed by: Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born
Per­formed by: Okwui Okpok­wasili, Bria Bacon, Kris Lee, AJ Wilmore, and Ny Opong
Pro­duc­tion design: Peter Born
Dra­maturg: Kather­ine Profeta

How do we hold and trans­mit mem­o­ry through a series of ongo­ing and inti­mate embod­ied entan­gle­ments? How do we design an ongo­ing web of psy­chic and phys­i­cal con­nec­tion? my tongue is a blade is a three-hour move­ment per­for­mance-prac­tice root­ed in rela­tion, mem­o­ry, and reflec­tion. Five per­form­ers com­mit to remem­ber­ing one anoth­er, hold­ing one anoth­er, bear­ing one anoth­er, and sus­tain­ing the world that con­tains them. A rich visu­al and son­ic land­scape invites the audi­ence to wit­ness this shared prac­tice and to res­onate with­in it.

Orig­i­nal­ly com­mis­sioned by the Irish Muse­um of Mod­ern Art as part of Take a Breath, with sup­port from the Sam Gilliam Foun­da­tion. Sup­port for Sweat Vari­ant is pro­vid­ed in part by the Mel­lon and Howard Gilman Foun­da­tions, as well as by the New Eng­land Foun­da­tion for the Arts’ Nation­al Dance Project with fund­ing from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Each dura­tional per­for­mance is three hours long, and we encour­age audi­ences to come and go through­out the piece. Advance book­ing is rec­om­mend­ed, scroll down for tick­ets. Two entry time slots are avail­able at 6 and 7:30PM. Guests are wel­come to arrive any time after their cho­sen entry slot and stay for as long as they like. 

DIG­I­TAL PROGRAM

SCHED­ULE

• June 19, 6PM
• June 20, 6PM

LOCA­TION

Colonels Row, Gov­er­nors Island

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Sweat Vari­ant is the col­lab­o­ra­tive prac­tice of Okwui Okpok­wasili and Peter Born. Since 1996, they have been work­ing at the inter­sec­tion of dance, the­ater, and visu­al art to make chal­leng­ing and rig­or­ous work that reaf­firms that which has been deemed mar­gin­al as the true cen­ter through the explo­ration of Black inte­ri­or­i­ty. Okpok­wasili and Born are inter­est­ed in build­ing a spec­ta­cle of rad­i­cal inti­ma­cy, in which both per­form­ers and audi­ence are acknowl­edged as being locked in a mutu­al gaze. They hope to acti­vate a space that allows the audi­ence to ques­tion who they are look­ing at, and how they are look­ing. Okpok­wasili and Born have cre­at­ed the Bessie Award-win­ning pent up: a revenge dance and Bronx Goth­ic. The lat­ter con­tin­ues to tour inter­na­tion­al­ly, most recent­ly to the 2024 Milan Tri­en­nale. Oth­er per­for­mances include let slip, hold sway, adaku, part 1: the road opens, Adaku’s Revolt, swal­low the moon, Sit­ting on a Man’s Head, and poor people’s TV room, which also toured the US. Their work has been fea­tured inter­na­tion­al­ly, includ­ing at the Berlin Bien­nale, the Young Vic, and the Tate. Recent works include instal­la­tions in the exhi­bi­tions Grief and Griev­ance, Art and Mourn­ing in Amer­i­ca at the New Muse­um (NYC), Witch­hunt at the Ham­mer Muse­um in Los Ange­les, and Sex Ecolo­gies at Kun­sthall Trond­heim in Nor­way. poor people’s TV room (solo) instal­la­tion is in the Ham­mer Muse­um and Whit­ney Muse­um collections.

Okwui Okpok­wasili (she/​her) is a Brook­lyn-based per­former, actor, chore­o­g­ra­ph­er, and writer. Okpok­wasili has earned numer­ous acco­lades, includ­ing a 2025 Art Award from the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Arts and Let­ters, 2018 Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty Hod­der Fel­low­ship, a 2018 Herb Alpert Award, a 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, and a 2018 MacArthur Fel­low­ship. Okpok­wasili was the 2015 – 2017 Randjelovic/​Stryker New York Live Arts Res­i­dent Com­mis­sioned Artist. She was the inau­gur­al artist for the Kravis Stu­dio Res­i­den­cy pro­gram at MoMA in 2022, and an artist in res­i­dence at the Brown Arts Insti­tute in 2023. She con­tin­ues to col­lab­o­rate with Ralph Lemon, Kevin Beasley, Saidiya Hart­man, and Kaneza Schaal, among oth­er artists.

Peter Born (he/​him) works as a direc­tor, com­pos­er, and design­er of per­for­mance and instal­la­tion. In col­lab­o­ra­tion with Okpok­wasili, Peter’s work has been fea­tured in the Berlin Bien­nale, ​“Grief and Griev­ance: Art and Mourn­ing in Amer­i­ca” at the New Muse­um, ​“Witch Hunt” at the Ham­mer Muse­um, ​“Loop­hole of Retreat: Venice”, ​“sex ecolo­gies” at Kun­sthall Trond­heim, as well as per­for­mance work at MoMA, the Whit­ney Muse­um, MASS MoCA, the Irish Muse­um of Mod­ern Art and ICA Boston, among oth­ers. He is the recip­i­ent of four New York Dance Per­for­mance ​“Bessie” Awards. His work as an art direc­tor and prop styl­ist has been fea­tured in video and pho­to projects with Vogue, Estee Laud­er, Barney’s Co-op, Bloom­ing­dales, Old Navy, 25 mag­a­zine, The Wall Street Jour­nal and No Strings Pup­pet Productions.

SWEAT VARI­ANT TEAM

Com­pa­ny Pro­duc­er - Annabel Hea­cock
Stu­dio and Ini­tia­tives Man­ag­er — Kear­ra Gopee
Devel­op­ment and Tour­ing Pro­duc­er - Lin­sey Bost­wick
Admin­is­tra­tive Assis­tant — Sarah Lou Had­dad
Stu­dio Appren­tice — Sonia Xiang

Pre­sent­ed as part of INTER­VEN­TIONS, Gov­er­nors Island Arts’ annu­al mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary per­for­mance series that presents local, nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al artists and invites audi­ences to expe­ri­ence work made and adapt­ed for out­door spaces. INTER­VEN­TIONS is curat­ed by Juan Pablo Siles, Asso­ciate Cura­tor and Pro­duc­er at the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. Sup­port for INTER­VEN­TIONS is pro­vid­ed by the NYC May­or’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

my tongue is a blade on Gov­er­nors Island is co-pre­sent­ed by Low­er Man­hat­tan Cul­tur­al Coun­cil (LMCC)‘s Riv­er to Riv­er Festival.