MADIOU: I came into the picture when things were getting going in San Diego. My dad was dancing, but he was more so drumming. I went in the direction of the drumming. He kind of put that in front of me more. I wanted to dance at one point, so I dipped in it a little bit. I know how to dance because I’ve been around it, but I grew up more so drum- ming. At one point I focused more on sports, but I never stopped drumming. As I grew up, I’ve always been able to keep music and percussion. I went to college for audio engi- neering, so I can be an engineer and still create beats and record people and bring my own flavor that I’ve learned from growing up in the arts with my parents all these years. MAKAI: I’m not that interested in dance, but I like watch- ing the shows and being around it because it’s pretty cool to me. It brings people together. I think I got [music] from my father because he drums and he’s a music producer. I know a lot of rhythms. KINE: My perspective of my parents, keeping it going to bring both their cultures to the states so people experience it. They’ve taught about four generations, from babies to adults, and it brought the culture and kept the culture going. And those people sometimes branch off and go to do their own thing and it becomes their passion. ESAILAMA: My mom always talks [about her and her] brother Lafayette Johnson Jr. relationship with Cuban, salsa, merengue, and cha cha cha cha dancing. At that time in their youth there was all this cross-cultural inspi- ration between Liberia, Senegal, Brazil, and Cuba. Festac, the 1977 festival. Those cultural exchanges and how Latin dance influenced a lot of West African cultures. How does dancing connect you to your cultural roots & identity? KINE: [When asked] if I identify myself as an American or an African, I always identify myself as African. Not just because my parents are from Africa, but when I go to Senegal (I haven’t been to Liberia yet), I feel like I’m home. ESAILAMA: I remember as a child, when my grandfather L.Kwia Johnson passed away, I was standing next to my grandmother, and I was scared but it was the most fas- cinating thing you could have seen. Something you will never see on a performance stage. But it took place right there in the yard of our house in Fiamah, Liberia. These people came down from the countryside. They did the Doglor to commemorate this big person in that way. We saw the same thing in Senegal when (my father) Papa Zak passed away. He was celebrated in such a moving way in Medina (Senegal), where he was raised. One final sendoff, orators [singers], the dance was there through the music and song.
community house, where you have dancers, musicians, costume mak- ers, and singers. MADIOU: Once we got up to the Bay Area, it got a little bit more youth- ful. We had a lot of young drum- mers too. By the time Ibrahima was born, Esailama and Sakeenah were in college, some cousins joined in with us and we were all living together, growing up together. We just always shared our parents with everybody for our whole life. Some of you have started your own families and households. Is it like how you grew up? How is it the same or different from how you grew up? SAKEENAH: I am married. And, to have a million people in the house. There was a party at my house. Right? So I think there’s nine peo- ple in the house right now. Now who lives here? There’s four of us. But this morning, there’s nine. And I don’t think anything of it. It’s just natural. I’m accustomed to that now. My husband comes from a small nuclear family, where it was always just him, his siblings and parents. I won’t say he’s get- ting used to it, but he just sees it. This is just who I am. This is just how we are. IBRAHIMA: I don’t have any kids. I have my goddaughter and nieces and nephews, but it’s me by myself. I’m dedicated to my work at this time.
them and hope this can be a foundation because we love it and do it. We do take them to shows and rehearsals and classes, but we make space for them to explore and be whomever they are outside of that. How does your family background and parents as dancers influence you now? KINE: I would say we were kind of all born into it. It was our extracurricular activity that became our pas- sion as we got older. For me, it was a wonderful thing to be born into. Being able to first be an apprentice under my own mother. Then study under my brother. That’s how we bond. Besides dance, nursing was my calling. I could still have my nursing career and have my dancing career. I explored many different things. I did step, hip hop. I’m currently in a dance organiza- tion, House Arrest Two Championship Dance Team Inc., out of Chicago, Illinois which I joined in college at Clark Atlanta University. IBRAHIMA: I was definitely born into the dance. The rhythm was in my body. I would not say I took dance seriously [until] about the age of 10 or 12. I danced with Diamano Coura West African Dance Company. I went to Berkeley High [where] my mom taught. That’s where my dance choreography journey started at Berkeley High because of the African-American studies department. My friends thought I would be this famous choreographer but it took a right turn doing drawing and design, my first passion. I still keep West African dance. I have danced with choreogra- pher Fatima doing contemporary styles, still based around African dance. I went to school for fashion design and I have my own clothing line, Rebels of the Soil, challenging the eye of classification for men and women. Fashion and dance go hand in hand, because I first started learning how to sew garments and do things from watching my mother, her good friend uncle Nimely, and their friend who has transitioned, Papa Ibrahima Camara. I always tie my designs back to what I was born into. SAKEENAH: I was first introduced to dance at around eight. It’s in the home. It’s what we do. I won’t say that I have two left feet. I probably could have danced a little bit if I really kept up with it. I think I can claim one per- formance. I went off to college and then came back and we were doing big shows at the Calvin Simmons The- ater and selling seats and I just jumped right in and took the hat of Ticketmaster for performances. When my dad was teaching the women’s group [I took] classes with him. But I didn’t perform. I’m in the audience, clapping my hands, and moving my body a little bit, but I’m not getting out there on the dance floor.
TAKH and Esailama Diouf-Henry
ESAILAMA: Yes. There’s a lot of people who come in and out of my house and my back house is a rotating house for people to live in.
little bit of a shift in the sense for my parents, there was rehearsals, classes, all that stuff going on all the time. And if we wanted to be together, we’d be in a rehearsal or a class or in a show. Looking at my relationship with my son, Sakeenah with hers, and Madiou with his, our children, this generation, they’re doing their own thing very early on. We’re very careful and mindful of allowing them that space. If they don’t want to dance, they don’t have to dance. They don’t have to drum. We encourage
MADIOU: Kinda is like that a lil’ bit not to that extreme… but in its own way.
ESAILAMA: I think there is a little bit of a difference. I have people who come in and out of my house. Peo- ple stay here. My back house is rotating. But there’s a
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