How We Get Down...

WE LOVE YOU, Detroit. Straight from the heart.



We have been so busy lately (in very good ways), so I apologize for the long delay in updating the blog. Um…where to begin? Maybe at the beginning? The beginning for us is Detroit and the beautiful, passionate, wise, and generous people who are Detroit. The more we travel through the city and make connections with folks doing good work (while trying to keep their heads up and spread the light) the more we realize how much power and love there is in Detroit. There are artists on every corner, in every neighborhood.

Concrete poets, schoolyard Basquiats, songbirds at the busstop, dancing divas ready to twirl in any open space they can find.

We see you. We hear you. We most definitely feel you.

So what have we been up to?
Collaboration and Community: BlackLight and LAMP illuminating Detroit!

Well, first of all, we have been collaborating with an inspiring group of activists artists from the Detroit Summer’s LAMP (Live Arts Media Project). Detroit Summer was founded by the civil rights activist Grace Boggs. Please go here to find out more about them. LAMP produced a cd called "Rising Up From the Ashes: Chronicles of a Dropout" and were featured in the September 2007 issue of The Source! They do groundbreaking work to address the educational crisis in Detroit through youth leadership and community education projects that utilize hip hop and the media. You HAVE to make their hip hop audio documentary your next cd purchase. SIMPLY AMAZING.

BlackLight collaborated with LAMP to lead a creative expression workshop at the Detroit Summer’s monthly community potluck on October 11th. We choreographed a dance to one of the songs on the LAMP cd about personal empowerment, and then led a workshop on using movement and writing to address social justice issues.

The room was full of people of all ages, backgrounds, and colors. Here are some of the issues that folks identified as important to them: lack of funding for the public schools, corruption in the government, cutting funding to community-based programs, commercial radio stations don’t reflect the wealth of musical artistry we have in Detroit, and indifference and complacency. We raised these issues and then broke down into smaller groups to figure out how we could explore causes and solutions to these issues through movement and writing. Each group then presented their performance/social commentary piece to the larger group. Seeing our issues represented through dance and poetry helped us to understand them in new ways and envision more creative solutions.

We are still buzzing from all the energy that was generated in the room! After we voiced our concerns and hopes for Detroit, we danced in our JOY and reinvigorated power. See photos...you know how we get down!


ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
Starting at the end of the month of October, BlackLight will be using the blackbox theatre at the brand new, beautiful, super resourced downtown Detroit YMCA as our rehearsal and performance space. We will use this space to plan our workshop series for young women as well as to develop our multimedia production for Spring 2008.


RAISE YOUR VOICE, WORK IT OUT!
The ‘Speak, Move, Transform’ Dance and Creative Writing Workshop Series for Young Women...

In this workshop we will use movement, writing, and our voices to identify and address issues that are important to us as young women in Detroit, in the world.

When and Where:
November 7th, 14th and 21st
4:30 to 6:30 p.m. @ 3535 Cass Avenue, Detroit

Who It’s For:
Young women between 13 and 18 years old. (We can be flexible with the age range)

What you need to bring:
Clothes you can move in comfortably and an open mind

How to reserve a spot:
Email us @blacklightemail@gmail.com

BlackLight, still luminous.

Strength & Love