BLACK BODY AMNESIA
A Living Archive of Black Life
Black Body Amnesia is a collection of poetry by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, drawn from live performance, ritual, and embodied practice developed over more than a decade.
The poems move between grief, pleasure, memory, desire, disappearance, and survival. Many were first spoken, sung, or enacted before being written, carrying the residue of performance into the archive.
This work does not offer resolution. It allows memory to remain unfinished.
“...prolific Nigerian-American poet, curator, choreographer and performance artist’s new show explores the erotic fear associated with the black male body.”
THE ARCHIVE
Black Body Amnesia brings together:
Poems from live performances
Performance texts and lyrics
Critical reflections and conversations
Visual documentation connected to the work
Together, these materials trace how Black life is remembered, fragmented, and held across time.
“Rest. Craft. Conjure was an incredibly generative experience that sparked new dreams and a vision for my long term project, Praxis for Paralysis. jaamil’s deep care and honesty in curating and holding space made the residency a truly transformative time of rest and creative renewal.””
Black Body Amnesia, 2nd Edition
The second edition presents a refined and focused iteration of Black Body Amnesia, centering Jaamil Olawale Kosoko’s poetry alongside selected performance texts, visual materials, and conversations.
The poems move through intimacy, loss, eroticism, violence, tenderness, and care without explanation or instruction.
Press Reviews.
“ ...Kosoko’s physical struggle allows audience members to contemplate both the physical and emotional battles that accompany embodiment. Kosoko alludes to suicide when a doll falls face-first off of a table, which represents the ultimate escape of the body; however, Kosoko seems to advocate against this option by displaying his body struggling, thriving, and surviving during his wake work amongst the deaths that he illuminates. ”
“ ...Kosoko’s work is unique because it both particularizes and contextualizes identity. He shares personal content from to his late mother and his father, such as his father’s last voicemail. These moments surface as glimpses into his own particular journey in (re)communing with them. Kosoko is also concerned with contextualizing racial, gender, and sexual identities.”
Black Body Amnesia AUDIOBOOK
The audiobook captures an earlier iteration of the work, performed by Jaamil and rooted in the cadence and breath of the original texts.
Listening reveals rhythm, pause, and emotional register that live differently in the body than on the page.
