Honoring Juneteenth: June 19

“Through freestyle movement and improvisation...movement ritual or dancing... in the house community in New York...as well as growing up in the south and witnessing people catch the spirit in my home Baptist Church, there’s something important to this concept [of embodiment] and this real feeling within my body of being able to access liberation.”

– DeeArah Wright
Changemaker & Social Entrepreneur
at the Dance/NYC 2021 Symposium

“We must trust those who are the most oppressed,
they are the best scholars and best visionaries for the future.”

– Jonathan Gonzalez
Multidisciplinary Artist and Educator with City University of New York referencing activist, thinker, Andaiye from The Point is to Change the World
at the Dance/NYC 2021 Symposium

Dance/NYC continues to hold space for the importance of #AestheticsAndArtistry to New York City’s many communities as we honor their presence and contributions. This conversation with artists in the Dance to Abolition, Liberation, Decolonization, and Reparations session at the 2021 Symposium unearths the connections between dance and liberation as a cultural practice, political movement and collective right.  

Reflect on Juneteenth with us and re-experience this Symposium session now on Dance/NYC’s YouTube page. Register for the upcoming #AestheticsAndArtistry town halls at dance.nyc. 

Photo: (L-R) ASL Brandon Kazen-Maddox, Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes, Jonathan González, DeeArah Wright, Nehemoyia Young, Christina Dawkins, and Abou Farman for 2021 Symposium.