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We wear the mask that hides our face that bears a grin and hides our frown.
I remember hungry days and sleepless nights, scared of the boogie man, but my boogie man was all too real…
Silent prayers
lost hope
beggin to no one in particular
Please don’t let him do it tonight
No where to go to just be me
Lost
We wear the mask that hides…
What am I hiding from?
Who am I hiding?
Why must I suffer alone?
Why don’t you see?
Mask
I live in a world where I’m afraid to be me
Wonder why that’s not enough
Mask
Hey, who should I be today?
Maybe I’ll be a confident young woman with all the answers
No. I’ll wear the mask of silliness. I’ll pretend like what’s going on is this world.
My world doesn’t bother me… I know I’ll...
That bears a smile and hides our frown
Who am I? No really who am I?
When I look in the mirror all I see is the mask.
What do you see?
You think you know but do you even know yourself? Who are you? Who are you? What do you see?
Mask
I am you, you are me.
I struggle. You struggle. But we survive
My fears are realized every day but I face them head on
And
I’m still here
We wear the mask no more.
-Toddra

YOU are BlackLight!

We looked up today and noticed that our BlackLight family has expanded and that we have all grown in ways that we couldn't possibly have imagined when we first came together a little over a year ago. We have become both teachers and students and learned how to deal with unexplained disappointment and unexpected joy. We have been LIVING! The young ones (3-6 year olds) in our movement classes keep us humble and remind us how to laugh at ourselves. The older additions to the BlackLight fam in our intermediate classes show us how high we can FLY when we just let go a little bit and trust the journey. 

After this summer, much will change in our lives. Some of us are moving on to other cities, some of us are starting college, some of us are charting new paths that combine work and school in innovative and exciting ways. We haven't talked much about what these new avenues mean for BlackLight and what geographic distance will do to our ties. How will we continue our work together apart? 

Toddra reminds us, always, that BlackLight IS EVERYWHERE. While BlackLight is in each one of us it does not belong to just any one of us. You claim BlackLight any time you are living in joy, reaching out to others, noticing things that need your care and attention, responding to your community, making art, raising your voice, expressing your truth, LOVING, LOVING, LOVING, LOVING. 

So, as we grow and find new communities to engage with and be challenged by, the rays of BlackLight's love just reach out farther, burn brighter. So look for BlackLight Fisk, BlackLight Oakland College, BlackLight Newark, BlackLight Wayne State, BlackLight (your community here). 

We LOVE you,

BlackLight

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME!

BlackLight truly believes this

We can see it on the horizon

It is a bright light...glorious, breathtaking

It is calling us to be better, to do better

Are you ready?

The Media Does Not Define Us!

Scandalous!  

We are not our Mayor. We are not Defined by the Media...

You may think you know what our life is like. What our struggles are

You see all the negativity and go, "those poor girls."

"Hey...did you see what happened in Detroit last night?"

"Yeah, I saw that on the news"

But that is what's wrong with our city. People are more concerned with what the mayor is doing while these children are falling through the cracks.

Yes. Detroit may not the best place to be, but who cares? 

It takes so much energy to focus on the negative that no one has time to see the positive. 

For the sake of my sanity, I choose to take something negative and turn it into something positive.

The news is nothing more than a ratings war.

So stop judging my city by what you see on t.v.

Come see what's going on here for yourself

Youth are getting involved in the community, and that's just the beginning.

See, what you don't realize is what we are going through only makes us stronger.

Go ahead. Try to destroy us. Try to hold us back. 

It's only fuel for us to teach from experience, lead by example.

Maybe you could do me a favor...

Put down the remote and help restore a sense of self and pride back into the youth of tomorrow, like people in Detroit try to do on a day to day basis.

"Wow, did you see that on t.v.?"

-Toddra (March 2008)

Well, hello!

Yes. We know...it has been more than a minute. But, I guess, you could say we are so busy DOING we haven't had time to document what we are doing - to spread the word to all of you. Basically, just so caught up it was hard to find a minute to write.
What's New?

We received a 5K grant from the University of Michigan's Arts on Earth Program! This money will support our work on the Detroit Narratives Project. For Detroit Narratives we are interviewing Detroiters of all ages, backgrounds, colors, beliefs, and experiences to find out what it means to be a Detroiter - in all of the wonderful and diverse ways it can be thought of and expressed. We are then going to take the transcripts from these interviews and translate them into MOVEMENT, SONG, PHOTOS, and ARTWORK. Yeah, WOW! We have already interviewed over 20 people. We'll keep you posted cause more than likely we'll be calling on you for input in the very near future.

We are teaching ballet at the Boll Family YMCA in downtown Detroit on Saturdays. These amazing little ones have REALLY forced us to up our game when it comes to developing new movement, keeping our energy up and finding creative ways to keep them engaged. You should see us by the end of the day Saturday - tore up from the floor up - after 3 back to back classes. But you know what they say - spread the love, spread the talent and watch the world change. Or, maybe BlackLight just made that one up.



One more thing. BlackLight will be holding a week-long workshop series this summer at the YMCA. Come and be a part of the Light! We'll get back to you with exact dates soon.