Crossing The Line Festival 2021
October 20–November 6
FIAF’s acclaimed annual arts festival, Crossing The Line, returns for an exciting 14th edition. This year’s program spotlights Africa’s cultural renaissance, and features works created by interdisciplinary artists coming out of the continent and diaspora.
Curators Courtney Geraghty and Claude Grunitzky have brought together a lineup of compelling artists to perform at venues throughout New York City—intriguing experiences that will spark new conversations about the global Black experience.
Festival Program
Okwui Okpokwasili
& Peter Born
Before the whisper
becomes the word
October 20–November 6, 2021
Exhibition Opening
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 6pm
Artist Talk at 7pm
Working across media and disciplines, Igbo-Nigerian American artist Okwui Okpokwasili in collaboration with director Peter Born has conceived a room-sized video installation that investigates themes of remembrance, community mourning, and history.
nora chipaumire
Nehanda
Saturday, October 30, 2021, from 11am–4:30pm
Artist Talk at 5pm
October 20–November 6, 2021
Created during the pandemic, Nehanda is based on a legend of a spirit venerated by the Shona people, native of Zimbabwe and central Mozambique. nora chipaumire brings together instruments and musicians from around the world to evoke the story of atrocities against indigenous communities in British-occupied Southern Rhodesia.
Okwui Okpokwasili
& Peter Born
On the way, undone
Friday, October 22, 2021 at 7:30pm
Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 7:30pm
Igbo-Nigerian American artist Okwui Okpokwasili and director Peter Born have designed an in-situ work that blends genres and media. Performers manifest a polyphonic chorus wearing sculptural headdresses that recall traditional West African hairstyles, exploring a sonic entanglement that summons the past to envision the future.
Somi
Grammy-nominated singer Somi uses her songwriting to give voices to issues of social justice, transnationalism, womanhood, and global constructions of Blackness. For her debut at FIAF, she will perform some of her most iconic songs and give us a sneak preview of her upcoming album.
Christopher Myers
Fire in the Head
Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 7:30pm
A world premiere staged in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Fire in the Head salutes the tortured genius of the pathbreaking dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky, who, like many artists today, grappled with the confluence between global and personal crises.
Kaneza Schaal
KLII
Friday, November 5, 2021 at 7:30pm
Saturday, November 6, 2021 at 5 & 7:30pm
Kaneza Schaal exorcises the ghost of King Leopold II through a mytho-biographical performance. She addresses the residue of colonialism in our everyday lives in this showcase of her multimedia work in progress KLII.
Leadership Festival Support
Festival Support