cor·re·spond·ence runs 22 minutes, and the complete hour-long event includes a live performance and a post-show Q&A with the filmmaker in person!

cor·re·spond·ence is a film by Akwi Nji in collaboration with Lovar Davis Kidd and Lyrikal TMG which, through an electronic soundscape and choreopoetry, explores how various forms of written communications serve as tools that connect, manipulate, or unravel relationships. The film is the capstone project to an interdisciplinary experience integrating visual art and is inspired by transatlantic letters written from the late 1970s to early 2020s between Nji's Cameroon-based father and his children and wife. Each literary chapter in the film is an adaptation of written or typed correspondences and messages between loved ones. Although inspired by the writings between members of one family, the film explores the role of written correspondences -- including ancient inscriptions as well as present-day social media messages -- in our human pursuit of and longing for connection, intimacy, and spiritual and geographic home. The project is funded with support from the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About Akwi Nji

Akwi is an Iowa-based interdisciplinary artist creating in words, performance, and visual art. She specializes in creative personal narrative storytelling across artistic mediums and through producing and curating community-focused arts programming. Her work and words have appeared on stage from California's Wine Country to New York's Fashion Week.

Her art serves as manifestations of her exploration of race, gender, tensions between the 'outsider' and 'insider', and concepts of spiritual and geographic home. As a writer, voice artist, performer, and producer her collaborative partners include Emmy-award winning composers and nationally-renowned dancers and choreographers.

She produces alternative arts experiences through Threshold Gallery, with a mission to support women artists and artists of color in the Midwest. She is also creator of The Remoir Project, a nationwide audio and visual storytelling arts initiative.