The (her)stor(ies) Project

all movements from the (her)stor(ies) project made in collaboration with Nahimana Aponi, Audrey Johnson, Miryam Johnson, and Shanice Rollins

the (her)stor(ies) project is informed by writers Lucille Clifton and Audre Lorde and their approaches in processing grief, anger, pleasure, and agency. The work references Clifton’s “for de Lawd,” by working through some of the queries presented in the poem. For example: how does one choose to live after “murdered sons” and what does life look like after a violent loss carried out by figures who are supposed to protect? Throughout the work, the cast performs rituals grounded in Black American fellowship to help process these questions. Like Lorde, the (her)stor(ies) project engages biomythography as a form to process selfhood and mythmaking.

MOVEMENTS FROM THE (HER)STOR(IES) PROJECT

mourn and never tire (2015)

mourn and never tire is a movement score created in response to the number of unarmed Black people killed by police in the U.S. since 1999. While running in place, the performers read the name, age, location, and date of the people killed to process Blackness in relation to endurance, lamentation, and death.

cussin and prayin (2016)

cussin and prayin is a study on queer desire.

WIGS:  a book of dance poems (2015)

WIGS is a container of Black femme fantasy, pleasure, and the erotic.