KENKI KRIN KRIN Well Made Productions / Bijlmer Parktheater / Cherella Gessel

TR8 William Boothlaan

Spiritual. Black. Queer. KENKI KRIN KRIN is an interdisciplinary performance by maker and performer Cherella Gessel (she/he/they), in which different identities are peeled away layer by layer and rebuilt. It is an ode to their travels, research and exchanges in Senegal, Suriname, Salvador (Brazil), New York and Curaçao and their communities. As a result, the performance is steeped in Afro-spirituality, Afro Contemporary Dance, rap, Spoken Word and pole dancing.

What happens when different winti and Orishas come together in Cherella’s world? They meet under their skin: a playing field of genderf*ck, the feminine Videovixen, the masculine rapper, the HipHopHead with a Black Panther mindset, in the form of a pop concert.

KENKI KRIN KRIN – transformation to sincerity in Sranantongo – follows the path of emotional suppression from a vulnerable child to a powerful, outspoken Black queer personality. As an associative journey, the boundaries between the traditional and the contemporary, the spiritual and the earthly will blur. The performance is a representation of vulnerability and conformity, towards freedom, sensuality and self-determination. We see a person claiming their place in life, the community and the arts. In a time where being queer is under pressure worldwide, the maker uses the body as a carrier of memory, healing and resistance.

KENKI KRIN KRIN is an invitation to a collective ritual.