Events
Dancing While Black: This Body Knows Freedom, Story Circles on Organizing toward Vision in an Age of Resistance
What does it take to activate and maintain vision, particularly in moments where there is much to organize against? In this evening of storytelling, we will hear from a group of visionary dance artists about what they are working toward, and share stories of our own. This event marks the kickoff of Dancing While Black’s fifth anniversary season. Story Circles is a democratic process of storytelling created by John O’Neal of the Free Southern Theater, the predecessor of Dancing While Black’s New Orleans partner, Junebug Productions
Led by Wendi O’Neal and Paloma McGregor. With Invited Guests: Ebony Noelle Golden, Kendra Ross, Maria Bauman, Dr. Brenda Dixon-Gottschild, and Ishmael Houston-Jones.
20 Cooper Square, fifth floor
New York, NY 10003
Wendi Moore-O'Neal is a cultural worker, facilitator, and educator who was born and raised in New Orleans. She’s worked in local, regional and national justice organizations over the last 26 years; but her heart’s work is rooted at home, especially the kind of organizing that happens around kitchen tables and during porch-time. Wendi uses freedom songs and story circles to share what she knows about Black resistance movement culture and history.
Paloma McGregor is a New York-based, Caribbean-born choreographer whose work focuses on centering Black voices through collaborative, process-based art-making and organizing. She has worked with grandparents, children, environmental educators, academics and other artists to create a wide range of work, including a dance through a makeshift fishnet on a Brooklyn rooftop, a structured improvisation for a floating platform in the Bronx River and a devised multidisciplinary performance work about food justice with three dozen community members and students at UC Berkeley. Paloma does this work as Co-Founder and Director of Angela's Pulse, which creates and produces collaborative performance work dedicated to building community and illuminating bold new stories.
Dancing While Black is an artist-led initiative that supports the diverse work of Black dance artists by cultivating platforms for process, performance, dialogue and documentation. We bring the voices of Black dance artists from the periphery to the center, providing opportunities to self-determine the languages and lenses that define their work.
The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. A photo ID is required to enter NYU buildings and 20 Cooper Square is a wheelchair accessible venue.