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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.

Feminist? Womanist? Male Feminist? Humanist?...Call It What You Like

Wednesday was the first day of our workshop series for young women and guess what?



It looks like some young men are eager to join us as well. And not just as participants, but as collaborators.

This is great news but raises some questions for us to consider. BlackLight began as a female-led initiative. This does not mean, however, that we exclude males or are only interested in female uplift. In fact, the opposite is true. BlackLight has been, and will always be, about healing and empowering our community. And by community we mean ALL YA'LL! So, in addition to some very talented and energized young sisters, we also had Jason join us who is interested in getting some of his other male friends involved. Our hope is that these young men will enable us to extend our reach and speak to more people.

BlackLight is on fire!

So, since Bry-ee could not make it to this first workshop, I talked to her today about what happened on Wednesday and how many new members we have ready to support and add their unique voices. When I mentioned Jason, Bryee and I got into a conversation about feminism and what it means to be a feminist. Can men be feminists? Do WE even define ourselves as feminists? Do we take up Alice Walker’s terminology, womanist? Do any of these terms have relevance in the work we do?
Bry-ee is 21 years old and does not consider herself a feminist. She does not like the term because she feels it conveys male bashing. Bry-ee also feels that the things holding her back have little to do with her female status. Interesting, huh? Especially considering our mission (see right panel). This just proves to me how practice and theory, perceptions and actions can often co-exist in odd tensions.



Although I am all about social justice on a broad scale, I do understand (on both a deeply personal and theoretical level) how gender impacts life chances, especially as it interacts with race and economic status. I also readily admit that race is often more at the center of my consciousness as I make my way through the world. Do I consider myself a feminist? A humanist? An intersectionalist? It gets complicated sometimes but I am glad that I have the opportunity to think about these issues with the young women of BlackLight and be challenged by their contemporary understandings of what it means (and doesn’t mean) to be young, black and female in Detroit in 2007.

Where do you stand?

Professor Mark Anthony Neal reflecting on his own upbringing says that “there was rarely an instance when we even remotely thought about how gender, or even sexuality, complicated the experience of those of us who weren’t male.” He also citesAudre Lorde who makes the statement that “Sons - boys have no role models - Our girls have us as positive role models - the boys have nothing - they are trail blazers - they are making their own definition of self as men.”

Well, on Thursday, Jason stepped up to the open mic and dropped knowledge on what it means to be a man. In Jason’s words, “being a man means not being afraid to cry on someone's shoulder or to ask for help when you need it. Being a man means not being afraid to ask for a job application and do more than hang on the streets, even if your friends make fun of you. Being a man means being able to express yourself.”

Jason told me that he learned these things from his father and feels bad for those young men who don’t have male role models. Jason, like Audre Lorde, fears for what some young men's own definitions of self says about their lack of support and guidance.

Yes, we are very happy to have Jason and other young men as a part of BlackLight, whether they consider themselves male feminists, supporters, collaborators or just young men with something to say. Terminology seems less important than intentions.

What do you think?

BlackLight in the Academy - What Does it Mean to be Healthy?

BlackLight doin what we do at the University of Michigan...

Last Friday BlackLight participated in the Arts & Health session at University of Michigan’s Arts & Minds Conference. The other participants in our session included performance artist, Devora Luemark; professor of English and community artist, Petra Kuppers; playwright and performance artist, Neil Marcus and studio artist, Anne Mondro. When we were asked to join this group of scholars and artists in exposing the relationship between art and health, we had to think about what our arts practice means as a healing and transformative space for us, and for those we reach out to in our local and global communities.

There are the obvious, immediate health benefits that we feel on a physical level after we have danced together or used our writing to work through a difficult, seemingly unresolvable problem – the lightness and fluidity of our limbs and the new headspace opened up when we release our thoughts on paper. But, what does art have to do with health beyond this? And why do we instinctively believe that the work we do on both the individual and the social level is moving towards a universal well being?



Well, let’s use Detroit as an example. To put it bluntly, times are tough for a lot of folks. You don’t have to turn on the news or read the paper to understand this. You can see it in peoples' faces and hear it in their voices. This is the strain of struggle and the wearing down of resolve in the face of ever present obstacles. We see fourteen-year-old girls that look forty, we see young boys afraid to be young boys but scared to death of what might happen if they don’t appear to be men, we see mothers tired…just tired, and men who never stop working. We witness the toll that urban living takes on others, but it affects all of us. If we stop to look, really look, into each others’ faces we might be shocked by the reflection of our own battle fatigued expressions. But, more than the struggle, there is light and hope, beauty and vibrancy in our city. We don’t hear too much about this because it doesn’t really make for exciting news, but it does exist in each one of us.

This is the light that BlackLight taps into as a way to get back to the health and healing that we all need in order to continue to fight for justice in this world.

So what does art have to do with this? Art and creative expression are all about finding the light, finding that deeply rooted, resourcefulness. In locating our own power to speak, move, and use our being to create something new or to express our reality, we become more whole. We can only be truly healthy when we are whole and understand that we have the power to act and make a positive impact in the world. Art allows us to see this. Art allows us to experiment and try on a new way of living and being. Art allows us to see what a healthy and life affirming world might look and feel like.

It was interesting for us to be a part of the conference at the U of M. We noticed that it is difficult for some academics to step out of the “lecture zone” and think about how to really engage the participants. It seems hard for some people to think about knowledge as something that is shared and not necessarily imparted from one, singular all-knowing source (you know who you are). During our session, we got the group of about 50 people up, moving, writing and dancing with each other. Afterwards, during the Q and A session, several people talked about how challenging it was for them to pay attention to their bodies and to consciously think about embodying different thoughts and emotions. We talked about how the disconnect between mind, body, spirit and intention is a threat to our health and ability to be effective agents of change.

Deep stuff, huh? We’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this.

Do you feel better when you are able to creatively express yourself? Do you feel the weight of problems in your community affecting your physical, mental and emotional health? How can we take steps to create more compassionate, healing spaces in our everyday lives?

Speak to us, we are here!

Strength & Love,

BlackLight

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

RECOVER

Over the past week I came to the realization that everyone has to overcome something in their life. Right now my mom is on the journey to recovery, and I am so proud of her. I guess you could say I am still in denial (no it’s not just a river in Egypt). I mean, I knew my mom had a problem but I never wanted to believe it. But they say the first step is always the hardest. By my mom being gone, that made me realize how much I depend on her.

Her strength Her love Her comfort



Yes, its true, I’m a mama's girl and I am recovering from the shock that I’m not as independent as I try to lead others to believe. Recovery to me means realizing every day counts. You should visualize every road you have to take to a better you.

Leave a comment and tell me how you overcame a trying time in your life. How did you recover?

strength & love,
Br-yee

Too Shai To Speak? I Don't Think So

NO PLACE TO BE FREE...

there's no room to play
no place to be free
nowhere to take me
so I can just be me

so much time to spare
but nothing to do

why young boys out here trying to be men
when really they don't have what it takes within?

no fathers just examples to follow

young ladies just don't know what to do
with belly shirts on... trying to be grown
what does that say to you?

there's no room to play
no place to be free
nowhere to take me
so I can just be me

so much time to spare
but nothing to do

people blame it on the music
they blame it on the video games
not knowing that their environment is from where it came

everyone yelling, "LET'S MAKE CHANGE!"
but never stepping up

stop buying those games
don't buy their CDs

make an effort

and

people

will

infact

CHANGE

--Shai, August 2007

Find some GREEN, some HOPE, some AIR HERE

Making Revolution Irresistible

BLACK and BLUE

Black scars and blue bruises...wounds open and infected

No. Not physical. Emotional. Reclaiming my identity from all of the emotional abuse.
My emotional personified me. Ha, I became them. I didn't have any control over them.

How did I start this abusive relationship with myself?

Well, believe it or not, it started with lying.
I wanted so bad to be something that I wasn't. I began talking so much that I started to believe my lies, and so did people. Until I couldn't prove it.

After lying it became self pity and hatred from not being able to prove anything that I said.
Then I looked around and saw all of the latest trends. Clothing, relationships, shoes, hair. I realized I didn't have all that I wanted. Stressed. I began dropping out of school. Couldn't stand being talked about from girls and boys lusting after my body.

Today I am still patching up my bruises.

Stay Strong-- Giselle


the things we go through. the things we endure. the people who help us get through. the people we help.

Touching Poetree

you never know what might make the difference - a word, a touch, a hand outstretched- for real, meaning it, wanting to be grabbed and used to pull you up.

sometimes your support is made up of the people you see every day but forget how much they carry you until something hard happens. mothers, aunties, cousins, sisters, friends like sisters.

and sometimes they are people that you have heard of, read about, followed and been moved by. people whose presence in the world keeps you grounded and reaching higher.

we reached out to two of these people, Alixa and Naima of Climbing Poetree, and felt the distance between the familiar and the unknown close in an instant with the force of common purpose, art weapons drawn.

art...love...courage is Giselle feeling black and blue and deciding to put pen to paper - touching others, baring herself and letting us know no matter how crazy our paths may seem, we are never alone. the most solitary experience becomes a tribute to the strength we can all find in the truth. Climbing Poetree also reminds us that everyone's story is our story and that eveyone's pain will eventually be felt by all of us. we are the same.

Climbing Poetree

BlackLight is honored and humbled to be working with Climbing Poetree as they take their two-womyn show: HURRICANE SEASON: The Hidden Messages in Water on it's mind blowing national tour. This multi-media performance will explore the issues we must all face in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Read on for more about ALIXA + NAIMA and the show (maybe coming to a town near you too).

Alixa & Naima, the acclaimed arts activist duo Climbing PoeTree, present HURRICANE SEASON: The Hidden Messages in Water, A two-womyn multi-media performance that interweaves spoken word poetry, sound collage, contact choreography, shadow art, animation and moving images to explore critical issues facing humanity through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Water, the performance’s extended metaphor, guides the audience on a vivid journey of unthinkable tragedy and undeniable promise from a single drip into a violent storm that culminates in a climactic moment of possibility and resurrection.



New Orleans emerged from the floodwaters as a microcosm of the intersecting forces at play across America and even the world:
- global warming and environmental injustice
- extreme poverty amidst affluence and over-consumption
- gentrification and forced relocation of poor people and people of color
- the police, prison, and military industrial complex
- corporate control over public policy
- lack of local ownership and self-determination
- gross disparity of access and power along gender, sexuality, class,
and color lines

A riveting story about unnatural disaster and a great shift in universal consciousness, Hurricane Season draws vital connections between shared struggles and common solutions in a critical moment in human history.

Rhythmic and uplifting, raw and deeply moving, HURRICANE SEASON seeks not to captivate audiences, but to liberate them.
“Daring and visionary, Alixa and Naima’s multi-dimensional artistry is the thunder of personal and political awakening.” Hurricane Season arouses the power of our creative consciousness to transform destruction into solutions that already live amongst us.

“The role of the poet,” June Jordan said, “is to make revolution irresistible.” Alixa and Naima aim to make it attainable.



The objective of Hurricane Season is not only to stir in people the fervor of transformation, but also to channel that energy into immediate, meaningful, and tangible action. Group discussions will follow each performance where Alixa and Naima will cross-pollinate solutions, strategies, and success stories from communities they've visited worldwide, each battling their own "hurricane seasons." Representatives from local grassroots organizations will be invited to contribute to the dialogs and table at the events to garner support for local movements and initiatives. And audience participants will have the opportunity to contribute their personal manifestos to S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D, a growing tapestry of Stories, Testimonies, Intentions, Confessions, Truths, Healing Expressions, and Dreams collected by Alixa and Naima from audiences nationwide since the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

HURRICANE SEASON will tour the Northeast region throughout the Spring of 2008. The national tour begins on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (August 29th, 2008) and ends the last day of the Atlantic hurricane season, (November 30, 2008). Alixa and Naima will travel throughout the country in a vehicle converted to run on vegetable oil recycled from America’s fast-food addiction.

CLIMBING POETREE IN DETROIT SEPTEMBER 08!!!!
We'll keep you posted as things evolve

More info on the creators: click here
Booking and other inquiries
can be directed to water@climbingpoetree.com

"So, there is no ME but...DANCE, my VOICE, my WORDS, my STORY."

Hot summer days and warm nights pass by so quickly. You stop for a second and realize how much time has passed and wonder what you have done. What have you changed? What has changed in you? As the days roll by and the nights come and go in a flash, we dance, we write, we raise our voices, we act out our dreams and put pen to paper to conquer our deepest fears. We have been busy creating and recreating ourselves. But…sometimes it gets hard when you can’t find the words or your body won’t move the way you want it to. Sometimes it gets even harder when we can’t communicate with each other but want so desperately to be heard. Do you feel us? Do you know what we mean? Perhaps you have been there before? But, we keep pushing forward. Step into our world for a minute...



Hidden in Plain Sight

I notice a lot of people never notice me
I’m too silent and reserved
I don’t talk loud enough
I don’t walk slow enough
I don’t
I don’t
That’s all I hear
You don’t try, you don’t kiss, you won’t have sex, you won’t hold my hand
I always felt like an outcast
I never did anything right
I never kept my hair up
I never kept my nails done
I bit my nails
I can’t do my own hair
I’m not materialistic
I never knew to cross my legs when I sat
Hey, I didn’t even know that you were only supposed to wear black panties under white
All of these things were supposed to take away from my womanhood
But it didn’t
I am a woman
-Giselle



If not dance, then what?
If not me, then who?
Why would I smile?
When would I live?
Where would I shine?
If not me then who? who? who?

Searching for that forgotten feeling
that lost memory
that promise of forever
the chance to fill that bliss that love brings
white, blue, green
something borrowed: my body
something blue: the color of love
reaching a mutual understanding of life
something old: my soul
something new: me
--Br-yee




A young lady looking for dance trying to keep it near her heart
Trying to graduate from a young lady into a proud woman of happiness
Hoping to shy away from shyness and speak out so I can be heard
Keeping me and my family proud of me seems to be my main goal
And knowing that I will exceed it makes me feel good
To know that all that aside
I am just a girl trying to be a good woman
--Rijke

Web Aesthetics

We are working with our unbelievably talented web designer, Korey, (big ups!) putting our site together. It is taking longer than we expected, but it is all good because: 1) Korey is pushing us to learn from him so we can maintain the site and update it on our own 2) We are creating a “not your average site” type site that is really stretching our creativity and understanding of what is possible (both technologically and artistically). 3) We want our site to have our distinctive, unique, unable to be copied or replicated flavor all over it.

As Korey says, “The BlackLight aesthetic can’t be rushed.”

Never Enuf

ever since i realized there waz someone callt
a colored girl an evil woman a bitch or a nag
i been tryin not to be that & leave bitterness
in somebody else's cup/ come to somebody to love me
without deep & nasty smellin scald from lye or bein
left screamin in a street fulla lunatics/ whisperin
slut bitch bitch nigga/ get outta here wit alla that/
i didn't have any of that for you/i brought you what joy
i found & i found joy/

lady in orange, Ntozake Shange

Last Friday we saw Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf".

We have been transported, inspired and touched -- divinely. Words whispered in our ears, hit us in the face, snuck around our backs and sat defiantly on our shoulders. Shange's words, brought to life by the seven mesmerizing women who were the ladies in brown, orange, yellow, red, blue, green and purple, held us hostage and demanded we respond. The set was minimal, streamlined lighting and spare costumes. Shange's words and the women's emotion didn't need to be embellished. The stories carried themselves. It took us a minute to come back to our every day public selves when the play ended. When an artist moves you to places in yourself you have forgotten about or been denying for so long, it can sometimes take a minute to come to. If you have not seen or heard of this play or Ntozake Shange you must find out who she is and read something she's written. NOW!


I really enjoyed the play and the actresses were beyond what I ever expected. I was inspired. I wanted to dance. I thought of spoken word. I thought of art. It was educational and still relevant to black females today. I would definitely see it again. The lady in green seemed to be me when I closed my eyes -- her voice and her style.
--Giselle

**************************


The play was not what I expected but I wouldn't change it. It was the best play I've EVER seen and I wish more people had the chance to see it. Words really can't sum up how I felt.

I could feel the woman in red's pain. The actor really brought her character to life and made you feel like you were sitting there when the tragedy happened. I also liked the fact that everything else was kept simple to make you focus on the story and actors. The music interludes came at just the right time and set just the right tone. What I would take from this in creating my own play would be that things don't have to always be flashy and fake happy for it to be a good or entertaining show. It is also important to be committed to your character and the story you are telling.

A passage I really related to:

& she never looked back to smile
or acknowledge a sincere 'hey mama'
or to meet the eyes of someone
purposely findin somethin to do in her direction

all girls and women can relate to this because every time you go out in the street someone is calling your name or trying to get your attention -- especially men who know they are too old for you.
--Rijke

***************************

I really liked the fact that every person in the play was a necessary part of the production. The energy was high and everyone was lost in their character. I think the ladies really brought the words to life. I read the book the day before and really FELT them during the play. I realize that even though the book was written so many years before I was born those words still serve a purpose today. I really and truly can say I connected to every story. I felt their joy, sorrow and pain. I give this two thumbs up, ten stars and a huge thank you!

this passage is me:

/especially cuz i can make the music loud enuf/ so there is no me but dance/ & when
i can dance like that/ there's nothin cd hurt me/ but i get tired & i haveta come offa the floor

--Br-yee

Thank You, Ntozake Shange!

Tell us about your favorite story, play, song, sculpture, movie, photograph, moment, person.



What moves you?
What makes you not know whether to laugh or cry?
What is your art?
What sustains and inspires you?


Strength & Love,

BlackLight

Ya Heard?

For the remaining three Tuesdays in the month of July BlackLight will be participating in (drum roll, please)...

Discussing Differences - A Dialogue for Detroit's Future

These discussions came out of a collaboration between Detroit Synergy and The Michigan Roundtable for Diversity & Inclusion (MRDI). We will be talking/working on breaking down racial and social barriers among metro Detroiters.

Of course, we'll let you know what we learn, teach, and move towards.

Oh, and a big ps...

We are up on the University of Michigan's Detroit Center website! Take a look in the Projects tab under UM Partners.

We love you, DETROIT!

Don't Miss...

If you are in the Detroit area on July 19th, hit up Cross Movement Records' HISTORY TOUR '07 hosted by ValorJam.

The concert features some amazing hip hop artists focused on the positive and uplift such as: DATRUTH, FLAME, & TADASHI. We met Shawn Williams, the executive program director of Valor Jam, a couple of weeks ago at the hip hop panel in Ypsi. He is doing great things in the community so come show your support.

You'll see BlackLight in the crowd - head bouncin'

BIG THINGS!!!

Well, big things have been happening for BlackLight! In just a short period of time, we are making our mark. Since we posted last on Monday the 18th, we have had a week full of rehearsals and classes where we have been dancing, writing and talking about the things we care about most. You may remember that we were invited to speak on a panel in Ypsilanti about hip hop and the current controversy surrounding language and the representation of black culture (see our 6/18 post if you need a refresher). As you also may remember, we were a little wary of what the panel would be like and if our voices would be heard. To our welcome surprise the panel was off the chain and very REAL. We were seated among two Dr.s, a Reverend, a very wise man from the community who knew tons on music history, and two very outspoken male high school students. Everyone had a lot to say and spoke with passion and intelligence. We felt so energized afterwards knowing that so many people care so deeply about our community and are thinking critically about solutions. We do wish, however, that there was more focus on the solutions than the problems, but it was still a great panel. The audience asked a lot of challenging questions and some good debates were started. BlackLight made some good connections with other youth trying to make change in their own special ways and adults who gave us encouragement and support. Big Ups to Ms. Eaglin for inviting us!!!


But...that is just part of what we did on Saturday. Before the panel, we took a master modern dance class with two members of the MOMIX dance company. Words can't even express how much fun we had in this class. Some things were harder than others but we worked it out! Rob and Sara, the dancers who taught the class, were encouraging the whole time and really pushed us to take risks, fall off balance, and basically dance from our hearts (like we are known to do here at BlackLight anyway). We have to give a Shout Out to ROB AND SARA and to MARTRA for telling us about this great opportunity.

You can read more about all of this and see us in action below...

The month of July will be BOOTCAMP for us. We will be dancing, running rehearsals, choreographing, working out, writing, and working on our photography and storytelling skills for upcoming classes, workshops and performances in August and September. We hope you are, like us, drinking lots of water and trying to eat healthy in this hot weather.

Keep checking for us...
If you are new to us, please take a look at some of our older posts.

Strength & Love,

BlackLight

Dancing with the Stars...

I thought the class was awesome. It was totally not what I expected. I thought it was going to be a boring ballet class but was really suprised at how the movement was so free and flowing. The teachers, Rob and Sara were really helpful and encouraging. I liked the fact that they wanted us to take risks with our dancing and told us that making mistakes was good. --Rijke

I was expecting the class to be really structured and boring but it turned out to be fun. I really like MOMIX and want to see one of their shows one day. The class was fun and interactive. The most challenging part for me (as always) was when it came to tendus. Shout out SARA and ROB! Shout out to all the skinny chicks in the back! They didn’t look like they enjoyed being there or like they enjoyed dancing. But at the end of class when they had the chance to do their own choreography, it looked like they finally did get into it.
I learned that my weakness is anything that requires me to do anything with my arms and feet at the same time.
I really liked what Rob had to say about dancing and committment. If you commit to something even if you aren’t doing it right, you stand out. People won't notice the person dancing next to you even if they are doing all the steps completely "right" if they are not committed. This type of committment applies to all aspects of life. --Br-yee

I really liked the class and the instructors. I expected it to be that you had to be very flexible and that everything was going to be really really hard. Overall I liked it and the instructors were helpful. I hope to see them again one day. Thought that they were going to be used to all these skinny girls and that they were going to be like, "Get Out!" to us.
My weakness is my balance. I felt self-conscious at first but got over it when I noticed that the other students looked scared. I got my energy from Br-yee. Taking a risk can relate to every aspect in life not just dance. --Giselle

OUTSPOKEN!

I liked the whole panel but especially liked the comments of Dr. Douglas (a school psychologist) and Mr. Ratcliff because they were very educational and had a lot of insight. The panel felt like it was just black people having a real discussion amongst ourselves. But, I think we could have done more to talk about the solution instead of just the problems.
--Giselle



When I came into the panel I thought that it was going to be a "me against them" conversation. I thought the older adults on the panel were going to be like, "Hip hop is wrong! It is our way or the highway!" But that wasn't the case at all. A woman in the audience started a discussion on dress codes in high schools that I disagreed with because I feel like people place too much emphasis on this and it has nothing to do with the real problems. I agree with Giselle in that we need to be more solution focused but we covered a lot of topics and the conversation was thought provoking. There were a couple of times where I felt as if I was getting angry and couldn’t articulate anymore. But then some one from BlackLight would step in and say what I wanted to say anyway. I wish there had been more kids in the audience. --Br-yee


I felt that the panel was really eye opening and a really good experience. No one was saying that hip hop was bad but that "artists" need to learn how to express themselves in a different manner and extend their vocabulary --lIke Darrell, a Willow Run High School student who wrote and performed his own rap at the end of the discussion to the beat of "This is Why I'm Hot." I think most of all I liked the realness of the panel. Nobody held back. --Rijke

Changing the Conversation?

BlackLight has been invited to speak at a Town Hall Meeting this Saturday, June 23rd in Ypsilanti, MI. The meeting is a community dialogue on hip hop, language, and identity in light of the now infamous Imus statement.

*sigh*

Well, each of us here at BlackLight has her own opionion on this topic. But, we are all kind of irritated that we need to call on Don Imus and invoke hip hop in order to have a discussion on issues in our society that go much deeper than one man's thoughtless comments or commercialized lyrics that don't necessarily represent what WE know to be hip hop. This, we suppose, is why this meeting is a good thing. It will give us an opportunity to voice the complexities of the issues at hand and, we hope, move us to more productive dialogue and action.

Before we can even begin the discussion, we think it is important to define what people are really referring to when they use the term hip hop. Everyone seems to be using different definitions and making assumptions based on misinformation and stereotypes. We may have our work cut out for us on Saturday but are looking forward to a challenging and productive dialogue.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this! Feel free to post a comment.

Strength & Love,

BlackLight

Hard at Work! (but, we can't front--it's still fun)

Thought you might enjoy some of our rehearsal photos. 90 degrees, high humidity and still dancing! That's what's up!