
Outside The Spotlight: Napoleon Maddox/ Tatsuya Nakatani
With Twice the First Time, Cincinnati-based Napoleon Maddox performs and retells the true story of his great-grand aunts, conjoined twins Millie-Christine. Born in slavery in 1851, Millie-Christine lived an extraordinary life jumping between autonomy and captivity, emancipation and exploitation. Here, Maddox uses the hyphen separating Millie-Christine as a metaphor for “Black” life in America; trapped between two identities, examined and exhibited. Altogether, Maddox and his collaborator,Tatsuya Nakatani, will create a sonic and visual environment that introduces audiences to Millie-Christine as she was then, and would be now.