PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANTWAN BANKS WILLIAMS BY MICHAEL FRENCH Afrimerica A JOURNEY TO BE AT HOME WITH OURSELVES
EVERY
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IS THERE any place on the planet more misun- derstood, more misused, unknown, mistaken, proclaimed, mytholo- gized and unresolved than the continent of Africa (the answer is ‘no,’ btw)? When you throw the blurry vision and the blurry romance of the African diaspora into the mix, who, despite our best inten- tions, despite how hard we try to resist, still hold onto a dream that one day, one day , we will all be back together again and everything’s gonna be alright, then you have a journey and a conversation that has no end in sight. For the time it takes you to read this article, the extraordinary artists of Gbedu Town Radio will be our guide and our conscience as they leave the concrete of Oakland for the concrete of Nigeria, and wade through the thorny history of where Africa and America merge and separate, and then merge and separate again. I’m no genius, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s gonna be quite a ride…. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
I SURVIVED 13 YEARS IN PRISON, but I am not free from my experience of prison. I have nightmares of being thrown back into the system. I am hyper vigilant, often secluded, and wake up most days still amazed that I am not incarcerated. Every second of every day, I accept that my reality consists of the version of me that is free, and the version of me that will never be free.
18 in dance FALL 2022
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WINTER 2023 in dance 19
In Dance | May 2014 | dancersgroup.org
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