Nigeria / USA

Mendi + Keith Obadike make music, art and literature. Their works include The Sour Thunder, an Internet opera (Bridge Records), and a poetry collection, Armor and Flesh (Lotus Press). Their intermedia work has been commissioned by, exhibited at, and performed at the New Museum, the New York African Film Festival and Electronic Arts Intermix, Whitechapel Art Gallery (London), The Gene Siskel Film Center, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Whitney Museum of Art, among other institutions. Their projects have been featured on New York and Chicago public radio, as well as on Juniradio (104.5) in Berlin. Keith received a BA in Art from North Carolina Central University and an MFA in Sound Design from Yale University. He is an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Communication at William Paterson University. Mendi received a BA in English from Spelman College and a PhD in Literature from Duke University. After working as a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University, she became a poetry editor at Fence Magazine and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute. Mendi and Keith also serve as art advisors to the Times Square Alliance and The Vera List Center for Art and Politics.

Filmography

My Hands Wishful Thinking (2000)
The Interaction of Coloreds (2002)
The Pink of Stealth (2003)
4-1-9 OR YOU CAN'T VIEW A MASQUERADE BY STANDING IN ONE PLACE (2004)
Coding the Crop / Browsing the Bush (2010)
If You Asked Her She Would Tell You (2011)