August 8 & 9 at 7:00 PM

Acclaimed Seattle artist Ahamefule J. Oluo presents a public work-in-progress performance of his newest project, SUSAN. This darkly comic musical portrait of Oluo's mother builds one story out of many, a journey from Section 8 housing in 1980s Seattle to the mangrove swamps of the Niger Delta to the Clallam Bay Correctional Facility. With stunning new compositions combined with soul-baring stand-up interludes, Oluo explores two intertwining narratives: his mother’s life as the white, Midwestern wife of a Nigerian chief and, later, a destitute single mother; and his own journey to Nigeria, as an adult, to visit his late father’s village and discover a family on the other side of the world.

SUSAN, the follow-up to Oluo’s Now I’m Fine, is a story about the failings of men and the endurance of women. It is a crystalline slice of American life; a collision of class, race, bodies, love, and men with bad intentions; a tragedy about the most comically optimistic person on earth. SUSAN is an ongoing work-in-progress developed through the OtB Artist-in-Residence program and a Creative Capital Project.