Empire Garage

Struggler

AMM Oct. 30: Genesis Owusu at Empire Garage

The world is in mass chaos. The end seems close at hand. But every day, somehow…one manages to rise up and move forward. So observes The Roach.

Whether the protagonist of Genesis Owusu‘s latest release Struggler is a roach in the literal sense (a talking roach? most alarming), the follow-up to Smiling With No Teeth, taking a few existential cues from Samuel Beckett‘s Waiting for Godot, zooms in on the central character’s feelings of helplessness as he doggedly perseveres amidst the destruction surrounding him, all while dealing with what Owusu describes as a ‘mental crisis.’ In this case, that which does not kill us makes us a stronger roach, no longer held back by the past.

Following tomorrow’s performance in KUTX’s Studio 1A, Genesis Owusu has a show tomorrow night, Tuesday Oct. 31, at Empire Garage on E. 7th. Doors at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m.