Set in a near-future United States, a young woman taught that she has no history worth remembering receives sudden transmissions. What are the multitude of futures she can now imagine? In adaku, part 2, sweat variant, the collaborative practice of Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born (2016 Creative Capital Awardees), continues a speculative trilogy exploring one family’s entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade. Their multidisciplinary approach invites audiences into cycles of ritual and repair. Partners in life and art, these visionary artists place Black interiority at the center of their bold, immersive works at the crossroads of dance, theater, and visual art. Their latest creation extends a mythos introduced with adaku, part 1: the road opens at BAM during Next Wave 2026.

Okpokwasili, an award-winning artist and MacArthur fellow, has brought her signature presence to BAM previously in works by Ralph Lemon and nora chipaumire, and also appears this season in the US premiere of Minor Music at the End of the World. Born is a director, composer, and designer of performance and installations, often together with Okpokwasili. Their work together has appeared internationally at the Berlin Biennale, the Wiener Festwochen, and the Tate, among other venues. Born’s collaborations with Okpokwasili and others have been awarded four New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards. sweat variant’s multidisciplinary initiatives span global institutions, calling upon audiences to examine memory, identity, and inheritance through profoundly transformative experiences.