An innovative community of movers, poets, and drummers gather together from California, Wisconsin to New York, for a unique live-stream event, as timely as it is a welcomed breath of fresh spring air. The presenters represent a potent knowledge source of performing and healing strategies rooted in movement or spoken word praxis that invokes powerful possibilities for bridging difference and antagonism.
Thursday, May 6, 2021, Zoom Webinar, 4-6 pm PDT | 6-8 pm CDT | 7-9 pm EDT
Free event
REQUIRED REGISTRATION: Zoom Link — https://go.wisc.edu/086w35
A national livestream webinar event that will inspire, energize and incite!
The artists will open the evening by sharing movement or spoken word, inviting audience participation. Each artist will address how their praxis connects with community healing, and how their praxis provide tools in support of Native Nations sovereignty, BIPOC solidarity, #BLM, and Anti-Asian Violence. Discussion, Q&A, and more performance!
CHAIR:
Peggy Choy (Associate Professor, Dance Department/Asian American Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Peggy Choy teaches her Ki Flow™ technique, dance/ethnic studies courses including Asian American Movement and Afro Asian Improv: From Hip Hop to Martial Arts Fusion. She is Artistic Director/Choreographer of Peggy Choy Dance, and CEO of The Ki Project Inc., a not-for-profit organization supporting performance and creative thinking for future generations.
WELCOME: Lori Kido Lopez (UW-Madison, Communication Arts, Director, Asian American Studies Program)
DISCUSSANT: James McMaster (UW-Madison Gender & Women Studies/ Asian American Studies Program)
PRESENTERS:
Kimberly Blaeser, Wisconsin (Poet)
Kimberly Blaeser, past Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2015-2016, is the author of five poetry collections including Copper Yearning, Apprenticed to Justice, and Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance. Anishinaabe from White Earth Nation, Blaeser is a UW–Milwaukee professor, MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts, and founding director of In-Na-Po—Indigenous Nations Poets.
Gizhibaa Aanakwad ~ John Paul Patrick, Wisconsin (Drum-Maker, Drummer)
Gizhibaa Aanakwad Ojibwe is a Tribal Member of Mashkiziibii, South Shore of Lake Superior. He is Cultural Consultant for the Madison Metropolitan School District, and is in the Social Innovation & Sustainability Leadership Graduate Program at Edgewood College, Madison. His current research focuses on social innovation to support revitalization of indigenous language through immersion.
Dyane Harvey Salaam, New York City (Dancer, Choreographer, Ma’at Mat Innovator)
Dyane Harvey-Salaam is a performing artist, dance educator, founding member and assistant to director Abdel Salaam of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, and creator of Ma’at Pilates. A 2019 BESSIE nominee and a 2017 BESSIE winner for outstanding performance, she is included in the Lincoln Center Library Dance Division’s “Oral History Project”, and in the film series, “The Dance Historian Is In”. She has performed world-wide, On- and Off-Broadway, on TV and in film, and was recently Movement Director for the Classic Stage Company’s “Frankenstein”. A professor of dance at Princeton and Hofstra Universities, she inspires cultural understanding, physical healing and aesthetic expression.
Ze Motion, New York (Hip Hop Dancer, BBoy, DJ)
Ze Motion is one of the best-kept secrets outside of Brooklyn, New York. Educated at La Sorbonne in Paris, France, where he also taught Hip Hop dance. A versatile BBoy, dancing since the ‘90s, teaching & performing world-wide with companies including Cirque du Soleil & Hip Hop USA. He is DJ on Brooklyn’s BBOX Radio. www.zemotiontheartist.com
Nejma Nefertiti, New York (Hip-Hop Artist)
Nejma Nefertiti is a Brooklyn-based Hip Hop artist, sound designer, creator of natural perfumes, and streetwear architect. She is a daughter of many lands, from Iran, to North Africa, to Indigenous America. Nejma Nefertiti is a social justice educator, utilizing Hip Hop as a cultural weapon to empower the oppressed. She was a featured performer in Nona Hendryx’s annual Rock Solid Women’s Festival, Celebrating Women in Art & Music, and Toshi Reagon’s Word*Rock*Sword: A Festival Exploration of Women’s Lives. Most recently, she was featured at BAM’s annual showcase of spoken word, “Word.Sound.Power.2021” along with “some of the best hip-hop MCs and poets from Brooklyn and Beyond”, such as Sa-Roc and Peggy Robles-Alvarado.
Kele Nitoto, Oakland, California (Drummer, Singer, Teacher)
Kele Nitoto is a second-generation percussionist and singer. Having studied with masters of many styles, Kele has taught hundreds of workshops and classes over the years for adults and children. Through it all he continues to explore what Drumming can be for all of us.
Kamau Rashid, Chicago (Martial Artist, Scholar)
Dr. Kamau Rashid is a scholar whose work explores African and African Diasporan resistance traditions and movements of re-indigenization. He teaches the African Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, helps to coordinate a rites-of-passage program for African American boys, and is an urban farmer. Associate Professor, National Louis University, associated with Study of Classical African Civilizations, Kemetic Institute of Chicago.
Lacouir Danta Yancey, Fitchburg (BBoy, Massage Therapist, Personal Trainer, Martial Artist)
Lacouir D. Yancey (Bboy Spirit), founder of the Soul Hydraulics crew of Madison, Wisconsin, is a licensed Chinese Massage and bodywork therapist, ACE certified personal trainer, Biomechanics and Movement Specialist, Youth Fitness Specialist, and Breakdance, Capoeira and Martial movement instructor. He is the owner of Ymassage Bodywork & Natural Fitness, and an East West Healing Arts Institute Instructor.
Sasanna Yee, California (Yoga & Qigong Practitioner, Teacher, Activist)
Sasanna Yee is a speaker, mindful movement educator, spiritual activist and experience designer connecting people with their bodies, with each other, and with the environment. After 17-year old Keonte Gathron took the life of her grandmother, Yik Oi Huang, Sasanna sprang into action being the change she wants to see in the world. She facilitates the alchemy of pain into compassionate action by working at the intersection of arts/culture, spirituality, wellness, and social justice.
Sponsors: Dance Department
Asian American Studies Program
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Co-Sponsors:
Blac Foundation
Hofstra University | Africana Studies, Asian Studies Program, Hofstra Dance Program, Hofstra Cultural Center
Northwestern University | School of Education & Social Policy
The Lewis Center at Princeton University
The Reset | Duane Lee Holland, Jr.
Tiz Media Foundation
University of California at Irvine | Department of Dance
University of California at Riverside | YOK Center
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor | Nam Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison | American Indian Studies Program, Associated Students of Madison, Dept. of Afro-American Studies, Dept. of Asian Languages & Cultures, Dept. of Gender & Women’s Studies, Division of the Arts, Folklore Program, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, PLACE, The Studio