“For the past decade Okpokwasili, a Nigerian American raised in the Bronx, has been responsible for, or part of, the most compelling performance work to be seen on this country’s stages.” 

– Elizabeth Zimmer, The Village Voice

“Okpokwasili has always been a standout in New York’s crowded performance scene, not least because of what she is able to do with her body: like a latter-day Judith Jamison, she makes whole narratives out of gestures—a back bend can intimate her irrepressible desire to take center stage and stay there.”

– Hilton Als, The New Yorker

“A riveting presence in her own unclassifiable creations, Okpokwasili can leave an audience vibrating, moved by images and incantations that linger long after a performance has ended.”

—Siobhan Burke, Dance Magazine

“Poor People’s TV Room is as dense and delicate as a centuries-old tapestry.”

– Gia Kourlas, New York Times

“Okpokwasili is performer of extraordinary grace and power. She has a low, thrilling voice; she dances her shuddering dances like she’s been plugged into a power-source that won’t let her rest.”

– Helen Shaw, Time Out New York

“I have never seen a piece quite like (Bronx Gothic) before. It’s performance more than theatre, a collision of dance, singing and the spoken word from the New York alternative scene, courtesy of writer and fearsomely energetic solo performer Okwui Okpokwasili.”

 – Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard

“This astonishing ninety-minute performance (Poor People’s TV Room), with riveting choreography by Okpokwasili and a live-feed set designed by Born, traverses women’s embodiment of memory and resistance...Undoubtedly the most affecting work I saw in the past year.”

– Zoe Whitley, Artforum, Best of 2017 issue

“By turns witty, delicate and lacerating... along with great pain, Okpokwasili finds humor and a certain powerful glamour in female strength, even when it’s just fronting, and something literally tidal, earthshaking, in longing and anger... in the midst of this great feat of performance, she breaks your heart, absolutely slays you with the poetry of it.”

– Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

“Okpokwasili endows each gesture and intonation with multivalent resonance. In the flourished extension of a hand, the lowering of the eyes, or the lifting of the chin, Okpokwasili conjures the ways that past events haunt action in the present tense.”

– Catherine Damman, Cultured