Modern Griots Review: Calling the Names of the Ancestors and Elders…

Last Saturday was a packed day for me. I attended three events — Moving with MUV (Movement for the Urban Village) dance workshop, the screening of My Nappy Roots: A Journey Through Black Hairitage at The Brothers Speak On Natural Beauty and URB ALT Festival with Muthawit and Leon Ware. Moving with MUV involved an […]

I Could Dance, Dance, Dance All Night…

Storyboard P’s “Black Magic” via Hycide Magazine Storyboard P is a Brooklyn-based dancer who is part of a new style called “Mutant.” He was recently in the video for Flying Lotus’ “Until the Quiet Comes” (watch below). Hycide Magazine also did a feature about him in their anniversary issue, which you can buy here.

I Could Dance, Dance, Dance All Night…

MoonLocking Via Stocktown Cyrus Glitch Spencer from So You Think You Can Dance combines MJ’s “moonwalk” with locking moves.

I Could Dance, Dance, Dance All Night Part 3

The African Cypher The underworld culture of street dance in Soweto, South Africa, where dancers transcend their space and time with their bodies and minds. “The African Cypher is the birthplace of ritual celebration, council, story telling and dance … When he [Tom London] dances on the street corner with Mada [Sthembiso]; the kids, the tsotsi’s […]

Otherworldly Videos: Root Shock

What is the opposite of future shock? Is it root shock? This is the latest performance from artist and dancer Ni’ Ja Whitson. Whitson puts contemporary and postmodern dance and art performance within an African diasporic context. Her work, Root Shock, re-imagines Yoruba diasporic and Orisa storytelling traditions, and explores the relationship between trauma and […]

Modern Griots Review: Marley/Ancestral Chants

Last Saturday, I packed my day with watching both the Marley film about reggae singer Bob Marley and Something Positive‘s annual show Ancestral Chants at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Thus, I am doing a combined kind of review of the two since they both were about Afro-Caribbean cultures. First, the Marley film. As we […]

The My-Stery: Bacchanal!!!!

Destra Garcia – “Bacchanal” While doing research to write one of my poems, I learned about the Greek god Dionysus/Roman god Bacchus and Bacchanalia festivals. When I heard the word Bacchanalia, I thought of how often Bacchanal is said in Caribbean Calypso and Soca music, and I wanted to know the connections between Caribbean carnival […]

I Could Dance, Dance, Dance All Night Part 2

Makeda Volleta, aka the queen lioness and the body scientist, explains why Haitian dance and other dances of the African Diaspora are her “yoga.”

Otherworldy Videos: New York Flexing

“Zilla March”: Flexing in the New York subways “Flexing, or bone breaking, is a mix of street dancing and contortionist movements mostly specific to Brooklyn. This video in particular is mesmerizing, almost ritualistic with this group of shirtless guys [they forgot to mention the female dancer] in gas masks all dancing together in the subway. […]

A Different “Black Swan”

Dancer Dada Masilo from the Zeadim Dance School does her own version of Swan Lake, called Umfula Wa Ma Dada, combining ballet with traditional African dance styles and bending gender roles.