Press & Events

 

BAKÍ ÁJĀ 002 Inheritances - Group Exhibition

November 2025

On November 9, 2025, two of Chibueze’s video works “how the blood blooms” (2020) and “with the threat of death ahead” (2020) were presented in a group exhibition titled ‘BAKÍ ÁJĀ 002 Inheritances,’ curated by Aisha Odera. Screened alongside a selection of new media artists both emerging and established, this show was presented over two days at Proposition, Bethnal Green in London, UK.

BAKÍ ÁJĀ Website & Exhibition Schedule

OYSTERKNIFE featured on KPFA

October 2024

OYSTERKNIFE was a featured Resistance in Residence Artist on an episode of the KPFA radio show “Law & Disorder,” hosted by Cat Brooks.

Law & Disorder: OYSTERKNIFE Interview

San Francisco Chronicle Review of “7 Days” at Yerba Buena Gardens

July 2024

SFChronicle gave a glowing special mention of OYSTERKNIFE’s most recent work, titled “7 Days,” at Choreofest 2024, hosted outdoors at Yerba Buena Gardens. This performance was a site-specific exploration of apocalypse, told through the lens of Octavia Butler’s 1993 science-fiction classic Parable of the Sower. The original song/poem performed in this work was a remix inspired by and modeled after the 1987 performance/poem “What Will Be Bombed Today?/Postscript,” originally created by Black queer artists Essex Hemphill, Wayson Jones, and Michelle Parkerson.

Presented on July 13th, exactly seven days before the fictional start of Butler’s novel, which begins on July 20, 2024, we used dance, endurance performance, original song/poetry, live music, ritual, and audience participation to imagine how we might survive dystopic late-stage capitalism and ongoing fascism. Alongside OYSTERKNIFE, this performance featured saxophonist Zekarias Musele Thompson as co-performer, co-writer and musical accompaniment.

SF Chronicle Review

mouf//full

January 2024

Under OYSTERKNIFE, Chibueze performed in and co-directed mouf//full: a site-specific, immersive, multimedia performance about Black queer faith, presented at Grace Cathedral. Below are articles and interviews promoting the performance.

SF Examiner

The Bay Area Reporter

mouf//full Production Page

BANDALOOP in Santiago, Chile

January 2023

Chibueze performed with BANDALOOP in Santiago, Chile as part of a US Embassy-sponsored tour at Festival Teatro a Mil 2023. In this new show, titled BIRDSTRIKE, she sang, performed original poetry, and danced on the Ministry of Justice Building, exploring how environmental destruction disrupts bird migration patterns. Chibueze also sang with the award-winning Chilean band, Plumas, alongside featured vocalist Destani Wolf.

Read a news article about the show here.

See photos of the performance here.

Learn more about Santiago a Mil International Theatre Festival here.

BANDALOOP: US & International Tours

April to October 2022

Chibueze performed as a featured singer, writer, and vertical dancer with BANDALOOP on their US and international tours. She toured in Hungary (MUPA Budapest, April-May 2022), Norfolk, Virginia (Virginia Arts Festival, May 2022), Santa Cruz, California (CommonGround Festival at the Museum of Art & History), Denver, Colorado (University of Denver) and debuted & co-directed an original commission in New Haven, CT (Yale University at the Schwarzman Center) with Melecio Estrella.

BANDALOOP 30th Anniversary Show: LOOM:FIELD

April 15-16, 2022

An announcement of the 30th anniversary show of BANDALOOP, a vertical dance company based in Oakland. Chibueze performed as a featured vocalist, poet, and aerial dancer in this local debut of LOOM:FIELD, a multimedia show about climate change and fast fashion.

Click here to view press release.

Click here to view Bandaloop website.

m|ou|f premieres at UC Santa Cruz

May 28, 2022

World premiere of m|ou|f - the final act in a triptych created by OYSTERKNIFE. The piece closed Surge: Explorations in Afrofuturism - an international festival at UC Santa Cruz curated by Gerald Casel and Aaron Samuel Mulenga.

Click here to view.

Review of m|ou|f for ODC’s State of Play

June 4, 2022

A review by the SF Chronicle’s Rachel Adams of ODC’s State of Play dance Festival, curated by Amara Tabor-Smith and Charles Slender-White. This article noted the “charismatic” excerpt of OYSTERKNIFE’s m|ou|f presented in the Festival.

Click here to view.

Time of Change

September 2021

A co-production with Joe Goode Performance Group

Co-directed by OYSTERKNIFE [Gabriele Christian & Chibueze Crouch], Melecio Estrella, and Joe Goode.

A site-specific dance-theater performance about the many facets of the 60s & 70s counterculture movement, as it originated in the Haight-Ashbury. Each director of this roving multimedia production explored a different aspect of the era, with OYSTERKNIFE focusing on the lost histories of this predominantly Black neighborhood before its gentrification by the hippies. The show took place September 1-19 in the streets of the Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, CA.

Learn more about the show here.

Check out photos of the show here.

Read an interview with the co-directors here.

California Arts Council: Individual Artist Fellowship

October 2021

Chibueze was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship in the Established Artist category from the California Arts Council. This state-wide fellowship is intended to “recognize, uplift, and celebrate the excellence of California artists,” especially for creatives whose work features “unique artistic vision, ongoing commitment to creative practice, and engagement with and impact on the larger cultural ecosystem.”

View the award announcement.

Learn more about the award here.

KQED Article on mouth//full

December 2019

An article by Pendarvis Harshaw of KQED with a review of mouth//full: a genre-breaking production about Black Diasporic faith created by OYSTERKNIFE at CounterPulse.

Click here to view.

Artist Highlight with Crowded Fire

December 2020

A conversation between Chibueze and Nailah Harper-Malveaux about their respective creative practices in the Bay Area. Facilitated by Leigh Rondon-Davis for Crowded Fire Theater’s weekly Twitch channel and their Artist Highlight series.

Click here to view.