 I said yes, and everything that you did so was powerful and wonderful and it was really different. Everything that I thought it would be so as a matter of fact. Before I give the speech to Omne, I want to offer to Amy Edwards and Tim Jones for the live screening that's happening. Yeah. And then Matthew who is doing the live streaming. Alright, thank you. Ra-Rae, who is taking pictures and documenting this work in that way. I want to thank my mom for helping me. And you're a good one. Thank you so, thank you so much for helping me with this. I also want to do a close for the black female choreographer showcase that is happening tomorrow with Lisa and myself and my agent, Pamela Nune. And the people that are showcasing our love for thing, Francine Ott, Crystal Brown, Solomon McGregor, and Shawnee Collins. We are going at City Center on two or four tomorrow. And like I said, this hopefully will happen again and again every year. So I just want to thank you. And thank you for the food. Also, please don't feel like you can't go get any food right away in New York. Oh, good evening everyone. Good evening. My name is instead of having me, and thank you very much for being here. I would really like to encourage everyone to come down. We'll all start in the space together. We'll all start on the floor together. The seats are there for when we need to get some perspective or take a rest of our shoes because you might get like that later on. So we'll be able to go back up there. But I'd like for us all to start here. So maybe those of y'all that are standing might want to like, so we'll find another spot. This is my friend and colleague. I'm going to have to all sit down and have you all sit down. We're from now. We're from here now. We're going to be providing the original layer of everything that goes on here today. So I want to facilitate a conversation. The idea that Camille brought to me and that she wanted to create a space for us to have the conversation that needed to be had. There's no agenda. The conversation, the topics and agenda will emerge from among us in the moment today. What I bring to the table is an improvisational structure that I've been using for about seven years now. I've been calling it technology as a circle. I didn't create it. I didn't make it up. I sourced it from us. In a club. In another circle. In my workshop. In Yarl and Zola. And Molly Sierve. And near love. And Amara. So it's us. It's all of us. So everybody already knows it, right? I just hope to serve right as a sign for it today. So come on in. Let's come on in. And we're going to start off just actually getting from Molly Sierve. If you look around the room, I want you to find somebody who made eye contact. Somehow acknowledge the fact that you have established eye contact. Right? A little more. I want you to move towards that person. Replace them where they were. Come back to stillness. And then go cruising for another connection. So this is it. We're going to have conversation later. This is it. Just silently trading places. You make eye contact. Move towards that person. Before you make connections. Maybe next time try to see if you can find a person that you do not know. Three connections across your arms. Just stay still. When everybody does it again, we're going to layer in. When you meet your person, I want you to ask them a specific question. I want you to ask them, what would you like to be asked? What question would you like to be asked? That's what you ask them. So you make your eye contact. You find a person. What would you like to be asked? I would like to be asked about my next work. What would you like to be asked? Connection. Ask the question. Replace each other. Cross your arms. Three times. Three times. Three people. Three connections. Ask them what they would like to be asked. What would they like to be asked? Connection. And begin. The conversation will bill about the room. We can always rest and hold. We can always break. Because if somebody is over in the corner somewhere about to explode, like, oh my god! Right? You can call a rest and hold and break and we'll feel like we're sold out. And then we can continue. Anybody can also call continue too. So we're not going to get caught inside of any rabbit hole. Let's do it. Okay, we got it. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. What does love have to do with it? Because you want to be not worthy in the larger scene of the world. But love is the type of thing that works. Particularly. Yeah, true, right? What is my thought? I would like to set on leadership. Law. Do you know that? I feel that I'm thirsty as to share space with in real time. And it looks like a family reunion. But it feels right. How do I make? How can we make something about thinking that scholars aren't the people we need? Lots of different people in different phases. Oh, thanks. Meaningful on the surface. But I can tell that the dancers really didn't care about each other. Because they didn't like spot check each other before they went on stage. Certain costumes were twisted. And you know, things weren't like where they could have been. And then we go on. But we know, we keep storing that. They really did say, I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy. I'm not paranoid. Yes. I'm not crazy about the Jensenen table in the Korean store. And the lady rolled out there. I mean, this is dead. Damn it. Because the expensive Jensenen was on the table. Mmm. I'm not making it up. It's true. I am not alone. I am not alone. We are together. We are together. We need to spend more hours in the studio. Remaking. In the studio. I need other people in the studio with me. In my work. In my presenting. My working. All the time. I would like to be in the studio with some people. Work. I deserve the best. I am the best. I am the best. I am the best. I have the best. I have the best. I have the best. I'll never forget one woman said to me a Caucasian woman in San Francisco how does a black woman get a job like this? You had done a whole bunch of shit before you ever applied to that name. I'm the best. Yeah. And that's the part of it. But that's our humor. And it's like if we didn't have that humor we would be able to ironically come back at somebody's house. We have got it. We have got it. Continue from the break. This is break. I'm going to call us to continue the web that we're leaving the spell that we're asking. So it's on you. You can ask the next question I can ask the question to everyone. Change the focus. Yes. Okay. It's to just be learn from people and see what it's like because all I've been doing is being a student. I don't know what real life is. So I want to keep doing what I do well and watch and keep on trusting God that you'll put the next step in front of me because as ideal as I want you to be and as easy as you want to be. All of the things that I've made are ideal. You want to keep following my who is quality teaching matters and wanting matters. And they get things according to what and they earn it. Do you think that blessing is unarmed? It's not. It's not. It's more like a position not like a daughter. So like the manager is who you are but you're there I don't know it's hard to do the work but I do it If you would put it in that big map what would it look like? I know I'm watching this I can feel it. I feel like I need to be doing it or help other people to do it and it's something that resonates with me. Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you To um To uh That feels like And break Break So I want to add a couple of things Be mindful of the drummer in the space and her ability to see the focal point Try to be mindful of our responsibility as the circle which we are already doing right open up space to intensify space I'm going to ask to pick up the tempo a little bit I'm going to ask it to start to pick up the tempo a little bit. I already got my 5 minute warning for this section but I don't think we're there yet I think that there are some urgent questions beneath the surface So I think that I'm going to ask if somebody asks you a question and you have an answer and then you feel like you're done for the focal point It doesn't matter necessarily who's in the center right so it's not necessarily about the conversation between two people it's about the conversation in the body in the room almost as if we are one thinking to ourselves So it doesn't matter who's asking the question or who's answering it answer it, ask it, ask the same question again ask another question let's try to see if we can get everybody in the focal point in the next 10 to 15, 10 minutes pushing tempo just a little bit asking this question, let's go continue how do you build a team? where would you like to travel to? in terms of your own work? to black colleges and universities why? because I want to dance in front of more black people because I think dance is education I think dance is scholarship I think dance is living I think dance is sport I think dance is human humanity I was asked for a part of your performance and choreographic process could you break that down a little bit? I was asked for this collective black dance is part of our choreographic and performance process of what we create so diaspora every culture has its diaspora it's not a catch-all for black dance or for afro-south african center thought or being every culture has its diaspora so there's some irish diaspora in me there's some youth in diaspora in me and there's certainly some african diaspora in me I think everybody answers for themselves and when you answer that's like putting out the call and it comes back to you and it may come back as a reflection of yourself and it may not and you just keep your arms open I don't need to be reflected back to me to make the call but it helps it does but I still like the people who come how do you stay strong? do you want the real answer? please I'm a Buddhist and I can't none of you have a right to be killed if anybody wants to know more see me how do you stay strong? do you take some guts? because we you are this to us and everyone wants the secret oh god well you all are all of that to me and more and more and more and you know the way the thing was going about love bring it out and getting it back obviously the answer the place out of which we begin to choreograph or write and it's all the same impulse and I don't say have sex where we make love that's what keeps me going I should pass it on and I forgot the other question what keeps you going? I want an emptiness of emptiness of zero a void no no no not an emptiness even emptiness is an emptiness what is your biggest channel trying to write? running too fast what? running too fast what are you running from? trying to catch something that doesn't necessarily need to be caught that way you won't look at me how do I know what? what's next for you? game for two it's about intimacy and violence how to participate in it yeah to the story, to everyday life to what goes on is there hope? yes dance because you've heard in a sentence with a lot of holes in it in a sentence with a lot of windows in it so the story goes like this when I when I after that and then you insert any pronoun you want he, she, we, I, they so I go when I I'll do the holes in when I then you after that we or when I and she after that I when I then we after that I when I after that I so I just want to offer that as a mantra and I just figured I could just throw that into the room and we can polycentrize it into a space does that make sense? go ahead when I when I she, she after that we when I he, he after that we when I after that we when I she after that we she let's just without leader without call and response, without leader so let's just establish the rhythm in the room so everybody begins together the pronouns are are free so there could be a lot of different versions of them having their own sign changed everybody doesn't have to talk together once the base is established people can improvise inside of that but let's try to just keep the volume like moderate so so I'm going to just invite the focal point to choose themselves come into the space and let the story come out of their body so the community is laying the question is laying the story with the windows and the body comes in the human and the body comes into the space and let the movement happen first but then fill in the spaces in the story does that make sense? okay here we go when I she after that I when you come up after that for Empire's products on me for the performance and went to the back right there was a something just walked in the door okay I'm not lying, I'm playing the drums. They're over-performing. I've never seen Indian women who, when I'm saying all day, be white, but that's not my name. Fun's fun, like so many tornadoes. After that, I... I... Actually, I... Which is... After that, I... After that, I... I'm moving to the cold winter day. I don't know why. But then she said come dance with me. She never... She said come dance with me. All up in here, I'm cursing. Come on, mom! Remover's right here! Nobody else's coming? What's that? After that day, She's in a lie to an apple. Every night. The only thing she asked me is that I dance with her. After that day, She's in a lie to an apple. After that day, She's in a happy, happy, happy day. After that day, She does everything I ask. I'm in a happy, happy, happy day. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so glad that you're showing work in so many different ways. I look forward to staying in touch, but I'm like, I'm not emailing you for dinner. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I'm so sorry that I can't do ASAP showings. I think that the center of the circle is the point, but the focal point offers themselves as an opportunity for us to be a galaxy and a constellation. So it's really more about the gathering. It's more about the circle than it is about the person in the center. And then the other thing that I feel, and this is the first time I've done it with so much talking. Usually it's almost all movement. And so I think that what's also happening for us in the room is that there's a lot of thought, right? That some of what's happening is... Is there time for more? Yeah, we're moving on. Yeah, there's time for more. I think that, again, it's... It accelerates, so it's cumulative in a certain kind of way once the energy gets allowed to come out and, of course, to have stillness. I think this process also helped you to be more cognizant of your own energy. Not everyone is movement. Some people are a little bit more grounded, so I think... Because some didn't want to jump out, that doesn't mean they weren't moving in this state. Yeah. One of the young... I want to also offer this, that when I see you, there is no separation. We are all one. So when you went out there, when you went out there, you... I went out there with you. Yes. I was with you. So we were dancing together. We didn't dance at all. We are the turntables. Let's look at what that really do me. What if I was right there? What happens is fear is going to exist, and a lot of fear comes from what you don't know. So you don't know if someone's going to criticize you. You don't know if someone's going to talk about you. But if you put so much focus into what others have to say, what others have to think, you'll block your own blessing because it's there. And you have to see it, because if you don't see it, I don't think it's any dance anybody is going to be able to help you see that for yourself. So it's up to you first to look at that fear and deal with that fear. And I mean, we all have it, you know, at some point or another. But what happens is we have to be accountable for the emotions that we allow to be entrapped in our own selves without blaming of what the world is, because the world is going to be where you're going to have those things coming at you. You're going to have, you know, competitive people. You're going to have people to pat you on the back, and they don't really mean it, you know, still. But is that where your dance comes from? You know, is that where, what, it's almost like why would God give you something that you know is there and you don't water it to blossom in yourself. You can't wait for somebody else to water something in your house. You have to water your own pet. So if you don't do that, it's not too much anybody here can do. So we can probably hear all the questions and ask all the questions. But then there's a lot of questions that we have to ask ourselves because we hinder ourselves from sometimes moving to the next level because we're so worried about what everybody else says or what other people say. Once we stop, it's not that the fear will disappear but every day that you work toward doing your best, you don't even have to be the best, but do your best. And as long as you do your best, anybody else's expectations are not because you're doing your best for you and that's what comes first which should come first. I also think it has to do with getting out of kind of like this a new place as artists which we were talking about and asking for help, right? So I'm finding us asking for help allows us to get outside of ourselves and it also opens up for us to search and to figure out like what I need, right? What I need as an artist, what resources do I need? And so connecting with other people helps move from the eye to the wheat and also from an artist, you know, in terms of like working and developing work and sustaining processes, building a team, right? Also stems from me getting out of my fear and I have to ask somebody else who's done it before or I have to be in a place where I'm not that familiar with and get more comfortable with it. Feel the fear and let's do it anyway. Yes. Allow the failure to be there. Allow the failure to come. Give it permission. So come on, come on with it so that I can gather information through my failure so that I can understand my success and to understand that failure is a part of the equation. And if you learn something, it is a success, right? I mean one of the things that I think makes dance so powerful is that it isn't life, it isn't death, it's a third space that in my own life I've been able to access to remind myself of the things that we're talking about. When I am too angry, too scared, too sad, too paralyzed to do anything, too selfish, too mean, you know, when I'm swinging between extremes, dance is this space that allows me to remind myself of what I really know under that inhumane thing, right? How important it is to ask for help. How important it is to operate from love. That if you're learning, it already is a success. I think it's easy, I speak for myself, sometimes to forget that because of the context that I work in and the pressures that come with them and the expectations and constantly being assessed and measured and valued and all that stuff. But dance is this space that I can go to, that I can be in that reminds me of what I know to be true. That I didn't, that I know, like my grandmother would say, that I know, that I know, right? And I think that beyond what happens on stage or at the showcase tomorrow or what some critic writes about someone's work, dance is so much bigger and deeper than that. And I would want to do more to understand the potency of that space beyond ticket sales and applause and TV and stuff like that. It's just more. So I think it comes back to the original thing that Baraka brought up in terms of I'm not making that up. Those other voices that are coming at you, you're not making those up but you do have the opportunity to remake their meaning. Say it, say it, remix. Making it up as a dancer is what we do, we make it up every day. So let's remake it, let's make it up and make it our way rather than taking all the information in and letting it somehow dilute our own voices from the inside or make us into things that we are not a strong spirit to be. And if I could add to that, it's okay to be afraid. It's okay to be afraid. I mean, we live in a, my new year's resolution is to stop cursing but... Sometimes it's a fucked up world and let us not forget that afraid as we are, as fearful as sometimes our lives look like, there are people sitting out in a desert without a blanket or a bottle of vodka or a fine table spoon. And so, you know, that's not just in Sudan or Syria or the Ukraine or it's in Detroit, that's in Chicago, that's in Washington, D.C. And so, one of the things I'm learning is that fear is just like love. It's all energy. It's all energy. And if we stop fearing fear, what if Roosevelt said, the only thing we have to fear is that all of you know that. I was born the same year. I have a six-year-old son who since in response to what has been played and replayed and replayed in the media over the last few months has been asking me questions like, why are so many live boys getting killed? Was that 12-year-old boy that got shot white or black mom? And he's asking me questions like, is my sister Ami who's light-skinned? Is she white or is she, he's six. I was not ready. I was not ready. He's six. He came home and said, oh, can we Google the Twin Towers? Because I heard they got destroyed. I want to know why. Six years old. Mom, I want to be white. Why do you want to be white, mommy? Because I don't want to get killed. Six years old. So in order for me to serve breakfast next day and respect myself as a mother, I have to figure out a way to give him the information he needs to walk with ease in fear and acknowledge that his fear is rational. It's rational. That's what I'm saying. It's real. But it's not going to stop us. But it doesn't stop us. I think fear also shows a sense that you're human. It shows a sense that you have a conscious. But it's a matter of what are you going to do with that fear? Are you going to let it control you? Or are you going to control that fear? This is so ironic because I was talking with my mother before I got back from Alabama. And she asked what I was afraid of. And she said, so what are you going to do to control that fear? Are you going to let that fear control you? And it shows that you're alive and it shows that you're aware. So it's okay to be afraid, you know? Because it shows that you're real. It might be okay to be afraid, but I know it doesn't always feel okay. It can feel very sick. And again, it can make you feel very alone. Yeah. It's interesting that the big piece that we worked with earlier will all kinds of hinges on love and now all kinds of hinges on fear. And very interesting what Baraka had said that they were trying to indicate that it's talking about love is that it's the same kind of energy. And it's about energy, whether it splays off into fear or hate or anger or passion or what have you. I mean, they're all like the same ball of energy. And the thing is, like, even though we're talking about the collective, tell me your name again. Tanu, like not alone. Tanu, okay. It's experienced in the only way, even though we're in a collective. I know one of the things I draw on a lot to work with my fear and I wrote this scrawny, scared little girl in Harlem. I was too dark, I was too skinny, I was too smart, I was too alone, I was too whatever. What I was able to figure out, though, which I think probably everybody in this room now has to draw on is our blackness. And I mean, you are probably every one of us in this room at some point wanted to be white. Very obvious reasons, because it would have made it easier for us to be alive. But at some point, the fact that we're all here, we chose to be black. And black really is about staying in mind. It's not even about color. And it's about culture. And it's about some place, Tanu, being able to draw upon the fact that I can walk down the street and I'm different and that's right. That's good and that's right. Or as the character in Selma says, I want to quarry to Goretta. When I feel Goretta asks her, right before she goes to speak to Melvin next, what do you say, how do you get strength? The questions that we've been asking, how do you get strength? And she says, I think about the fact of my ancestry and of the fact that we are the origins of culture and that we came bound on slave ships. But that energy that came there with us is running through our bloodstreams, yours and mine, and that's what makes me strong. You can make a mantra out of, I'm black. Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud. I just want to throw some things out into the space. One of my favorite quotes is Che Guevara said, the risk of appearing ridiculous allow me to say that the real or the true revolutionary is motivated by profound feelings of love. I once read a book that a European anthropologist was studying Africans in like the 30s and wrote a book and said, it made an observation that most of the warriors, most of the dancers were the warriors and the priests. Most of the dancers were the warriors and the priests. And in South Africa, during apartheid, the dance was so powerful, it was outlaw. For myself, it's very... I cannot allow myself to believe I'm alone. I have to believe in a most high for myself. And for that reason, I know I'm never alone. I always have that connection. And sometimes it's hard to remember that, to hold on to that in the midst of, in spite of, to reach for it because I don't think that we are raised in society at this point to be strong spiritually. We came this far by faith. By faith. All right. Because you always want to be one. I'll never forget. I actually grew up in an all-white community. My brother and I were the only two black children going to elementary and junior high school. And there were a lot of times I had to fight my way back to school and then back home again. I'm an adopted child. My mother is no longer living, but it was this color. And after every summer, if I got dark before I had to go back to school, she would start bleaching my skin so that I wouldn't go to school dark because I'd been playing in the sun also. And I have to say, for me, in some ways, Brenda, it is about color because I had to work at loving this color. I had to work. I spent years of work learning to love this color and this color and this color and this color. So it is about color for me. It is sometimes about race for me. It is sometimes. I actually, after I got into college, I was able to find a church called the Shroud of the Black Mudan by my teacher at Michigan. And some of you know, some of you, I actually helped build the Shrouds in Atlanta, Georgia. And some of you know the Shrouds in Houston. And to this day, in my daily prayers and meditation, I thank Pearl Clegg's father, Jeremiah Bebe Ajuman, and other people that were in the church. And every day I say, thank you for teaching me to love African people. Thank you for teaching me to love my black self. Because even though I didn't want to be white, there were two little white girls who once one day flipped their hair on the school bus in front of me. And they said, don't you want to, I was eight years old. And they said, don't you want to be pretty and white like us? And for whatever reason, at eight years old, I had the wherewithal to say, no, I don't. And I don't think you're pretty. With my mother preaching my skin at eight, I knew I did not want to be that. But I still did not love myself. There's a difference. I didn't want to be somebody else, but I had not learned to love myself. And it was the Shrine of the Black Madonna. And so each day in my prayer, I said, thank you for teaching me to love African people. Thank you for teaching me to love. I have to say, because I feel like I'm going to explode. In hearing you say that, and I will be breathing, one of the conversations that we have at my institution around diversity, equity and inclusion. We're having a lot of those. There's a sentiment undergirding the conversation that black folks especially and people of color in general that we will have reached equity when black folks especially and people of color in general can be, and I'm just going to say it, as mediocre as white folk and still get the same thing. Right? When we don't have to jump three times as high and meet three times as good and down and out. But you know, my father used to always say, you can't let your oppressor teach you. And my mother used to say, you can't let your oppressor set the standard. And I heard that for years as a little girl at my house. And I didn't know what that meant. But it was a real refrain in my growing up. And I can't remember, I'll say it this way. There's a way in which whiteness facilitates a kind of mediocrity. And the trick of it to me is I think that folks who ascribe to whiteness know that. And so the kind of violent responses that we get to our beauty, to our dance, to our art, to our breathing, to our babies, to our beingness, to our being in the world is because deep down in places some folks don't want to talk about at parties. They know that when you live in a world that constantly gives you unearthed privilege by virtue of how you look, you've really never had to compete. Not really. And as a result, you really don't know how good you are or if you're any good at all. And that breathes a certain kind of insecurity and making it about dance, about the work, about the choreography, about what we do in this space that I don't think our field is being honest enough. And so for us who identify, you know, for us as black folk in terms of that consciousness, I don't know where we're going, but what I do know is we would do ourselves well not to let that become the standard for what we emulate or measure ourselves by because that kind of privilege facilitates a kind of mediocrity and insecurity that I think belies the greatness of all people. And that's the problem. That was just so true to making pieces and art about this struggle. I think you have to start defining it for yourself. It's not that I have it. I'm asking that question for everyone. I know, but I feel like there's a lot of expression about something out there. And I'm not trying to criticize the group or go down on anybody, but a lot of expression about what's out there, but not the end of it should always be, and this is what I'm going to do, or this is what I want to do, even if you've not done it, or this is what I'm doing, or this is what I can do. So one thing that I think of, I forget somebody maybe thinks something that it was like defining your own victory. And that doesn't look like what it might look like from someone who's writing about the work, seeing the work, or even in the work. If I'm making the work, even the dancers are sometimes now always on board with you, or just in a different level. So you have to, or I know, I have to define what the victory is for myself, or no one's going to believe me in the first place. Okay, let me finish. Let me finish. And the other thing is not to wax too philosophical, but there's a Buddhist saying that people who have suffered the most deserve the most happiness. And therefore happiness is your birthright. If you feel this oppressor thing, if you feel the pain, if you feel you've been done wrong, if you're sick of the fucked up world, you deserve the very most happiness. When you get up in the morning, that's your birthright. And so therefore we operate, I operate from a place of happiness first, not from the place of fear. At least emotional enough, intelligent enough to know what that, the fear of feeling, physically, physically, and other people in my family. But I sort of, just one like millimeter turn left or right or up or down takes you off that pin point. Right. And you could, it might be something else you're operating from, but not from the fear place. But happiness is your birthright. No one can take that out of your DNA, out of your ancestry. And not only because you've suffered, but if that's the thing that you feel, then the other side of it is what you deserve. Rest and hold. And break. Continue. You sound like you're going up like, So that was popping off a little bit. I don't know. I want to acknowledge that this gathering is a part of a continuum, that this gathering happened last year, that Javale Zola had a gathering during the summer for the investigation of the possibility of bringing a black yard first institute, you know, institute. Am I saying it right? We don't know what it is, but just looking at a leather, looking at urban bush women as becoming a choreographic center and facilitating a choreograph, we don't know what it will be, but we're asking the questions of ourselves about, you know, what the organization can become to facilitate not only my vision, but a broader vision and organizing. So I think that's, I'm struggling a little bit tonight because I'm so full of what the beauty of the self-examination and finding, you know, finding our love and facing our fear. And I'm also, there is a larger thing called racism that is called implicit bias or diversity of the inclusion that keeps us under-resourced. And so some of the ways that we're not able to do, manifest our visions as far as they could be is because we are under-resourced. It's not just in our mind. We are under-resourced. And how do we build the resources to fail? If I was talking about failing, I was like, yeah, isn't that great that you got to have the resources that allow you to fail and to be able to get yourself that love so that you can move forward? So how do we build systems, confront systems, and dismantle systems, to get the resources that we need? I just want to say that. And then the other thing is that if you can read the Lillian Smith or Ray Bray in his work, early writers on the destruction of white humanity by holding this privilege. These are both white women. We wrote this in the 30s, 40s. The destruction of their humanity by holding this white privilege and what that is not only doing, then we'll understand that racism is not something only about black people that we've got to fight. It is something about our kind of humanity that you all must address, but we need more resources in white change and organization. So is that the thing that's happened? Say it again. What was the title of the book? The Lillian Smith, Dr. Smith's book. Lillian Smith's book, Several Strange Fruits. Strange Fruits. Our spaces are a world of killer dreams. Those are three books by her. Dan Brayden, I cannot think of the books, but she was like, because particularly for the white people in the room, you need to know that. You need to know that work. We need to know it, but particularly the white people in the room, you need to know those sheroes and be able to draw from that information. I would also just like to suggest another book as well that speaks to what this sister said. I'm sorry, let me say your name. Andrea. Andrea. There's a book that I'm reading that I'm sending out, literally, buying copies and sending out to people all over the country and actually heard about it on Oprah. It's called The Untethered Soul and it talks about our birthright, happiness being our birthright. So I'm feeling my time can be to wrap this portion of the conversation, but I wanted to acknowledge that the conversation began is ongoing and that there are many of us who are facilitating it in various places and spaces and times. So this isn't an end, right? It's a continuing one. Last year, I was... One of the things I remember from last year was that we closed by asking the youngest person in the room to speak. And the oldest. Well, you have the youngest person in the room with you. And since you are also one of the curators of one of the other conversations that's happened in New York since in the past year, I was wondering if you and your onboard could offer the last word. One thing I'm thinking about a lot just in my own work, but also with Dancing While Black, but also in this conversation today as it's unfolded is the isolation that comes from this dominant cultural structure of individualism. And the ways in which these spaces, creating these kinds of spaces more frequently means that each of these spaces doesn't have to be the thing that solves everything that each person has come into the room thinking like this, but that they build a continuum of communities again. And that individualism never served us here. I mean, that's not how we get to be here in this room today. So that's never, that's not really for us. That's for some other people. And the more, even though that some of us can find some success within success, within those structures, it still doesn't mean it's really serving us. And, yeah, that's, I mean that's what's sitting with me right now and as I think about like the we that I am at this moment and not just me and Gemini. I'm thinking about, you know, what does it mean? Not only in my, like it's been my work has been sort of what I've been birthing. Like and trying to figure out, and my work doesn't, my choreographic work is like, okay, that's a piece of like a continuum of things and all of those things influence one another. And the community building is what is what makes the choreographic work happen. It's not some, that's not some, oh, I'm really doing the choreographic work and this other shit is ancillary. No, like the other stuff creates a container in which I too can make work and support other work. And so then I think about like, what does it mean to be bringing another like young black person into the world at this time? And what are the creative, loving, moving, community building ways toward the happiness not only for these broader things or these larger communities that I'm thinking about, but like this individual person who's coming. And those things are connected. Is that okay? Yes. The baby has been kicking the whole time so you're right, maybe you wanted to say something. Can we stand for a second? I want to thank everybody for their presence. I want to thank you all for your participation. I want to thank Tasha for the music. Thank you, Gina, give me for giving us the space to the volunteers who helped to set up and everything. I just wanted to take the time to thank you as well. Yes, as much as I said, we love to see people, please take a place. We'd love for you to take some of that lovely food over there. Also, I want to just pick up Camille. Where is she? In the last year's gathering, we had talked about a database essentially so these conversations can be ongoing and continuous and mentorship possibilities and all of that great information can be shared. So we're still in the process of working on that and figuring out the best way for everyone to have access to it. Obviously, we don't want everybody's email and personal information just floating around. So figuring out the best secure way to do that and to be able to keep it going. Right, so just know that you'll be updated with all that information as we keep going and that's why hopefully I have everyone's email. If you think I don't have your email, please see me before you leave so I can make sure you're on the list. I've been knowing in the corner what I've had really crazily. So my name is Nia. Like Indira said, one of the things that came up last year is a conversation about a database and that conversation came up in a number of other spaces like this, other community spaces like this. It came up during the Disney after the Asper conference. It came up during the convening. It came up in all of these instances for this space online where we could continue to connect, to network, to build, to work together, to resource, and all that other stuff. And I recently, I lost them. Where'd they go? I'm here. I was thinking about to have some wonderful people who are also leaders in the coalition for Dinesmore Scholars Moving, which is a coalition that's organized by Dr. Brenda Dixon-Gottschild. This is Soraya. This is Leela. This is Norma, who also runs Black Dance Magazine. And we've had a conversation and we're figuring out the nitty gritty details of how to make this database happen. And one of the things we want to take the time to do is first make sure that this is something that we all want. So just first buy a show of hands. Can we just acknowledge if this online database is something that you're interested in? Okay. So the next step for us in understanding that this is not just something that we're going to sit in the corner and do by ourselves is getting a better understanding of what we need, that collectively. And so we have a survey. And I'm going to, you know, this is, this is, I'm going to leave this, I'm not just going to hold it up. This survey, this is a short link to the survey. This survey just gets some demographic information about who you are, asking questions about what you're looking for in a database and it gives you an opportunity to just continue that conversation. I'm a very specific thing that you're like, I must say this right now. You can come talk to either one of the four of us. We are fully accessible. And I am all over the internet. If you are not sure, you can come talk to me. And we look forward to continuing this conversation. Is there a way to just email it since you've got it? Yes, that's, oh yes. So in the, go ahead. So everybody's probably going to receive an email tomorrow from yours truly. Of course, thank you all for being here. But I'll include the office that John Lee mentioned. So we can all resource that, and share it here. I'll also be sure to include that link so that everybody's getting all this information in one email. And if you don't get the email and you really want to help email them to get the list, right? Don't just follow up to a community. Yes. You don't want to either help be involved or just want to contact her directly. And she's all over the internet. All over. All over as many people. Yes. And then the last but not least is we're going to take a group photo. So everybody can like about face and then come in. You want to come over here? Oh, you want to come back here? Okay. Everybody come back this way. Everybody is good over here. Yes. It's not a good chance to be in the film. You're going to get up on that chair. Right. You're going to get up on that chair. Right.