William Pope.L is known for visceral and bitingly humorous performances that engage in rigorous social critique. For almost 30 years, he has enacted a series of Crawl Pieces, in which he crawls along the sidewalks and streets to the point of exhaustion, literalizing the pain of homelessness, poverty, and racism. Most recently Pope.L has developed the Black Factory, a traveling performance and installation, to provoke discussion on race through direct audience involvement. He has had solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Artists Space in New York; and the Maine College of Art in Portland. He is the recipient of the Japan Residency Fellowship, several NEA Fellowships, and numerous residencies, and is a graduate of Rutgers University and the Whitney Museum Independent Studio Program in New York. The catalogue of his solo exhibition is entitled William Pope.L: The Friendliest Black Artist in America.

William Pope.L passed away in 2023.