Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / From Detroit to West Africa: The Rhythm of Heritage - Ep. 152 w/ Ajara Alghali (TeMaTe Dance Institute)

Transcript

From Detroit to West Africa: The Rhythm of Heritage - Ep. 152 w/ Ajara Alghali (TeMaTe Dance Institute) · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I reflect on it, I'm just thinking about other shy children who might need an outlet, like dance or music that they don't have.
0:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I truly feel that that's why arts and culture is needed because I was that shy that people really thought like I couldn't speak, I just didn't have that a way to express myself.
0:48
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1:01
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1:15
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1:17
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1:27
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1:38
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1:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I look forward to seeing you at the Bamboo Locations.
1:51
[SPEAKER_01]: With that being said,
1:54
[SPEAKER_01]: With updale Black Friday family, we'll come back to another installment of the Black Friday podcast.
1:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we get into today's episode, I need to hit that like button, subscribe, make sure you drop a comment, send a video of the family friend, love ones so that we can keep this thing going.
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Now that I got that out of the way, we got someone who is teaching, not only to stay the Michigan about Black Dance and Culture, but expanded it out to the entire world.
2:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Adjura, Agali, how you doing today?
2:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Good, how are you?
2:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing well.
2:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I would love to be able to, you are the artistic director and founder of the Temate Institute of Black Dance and Culture.
2:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, I would like to start there with understanding what is your love story with dance and culture.
2:35
[SPEAKER_01]: How did you fall into dance yourself?
2:40
[SPEAKER_02]: How did, well, I, I, I hate to always say this, but I've been dancing all of my life, really.
2:49
[SPEAKER_02]: My parents would say that when I was just a baby in diapers that my dad would turn on music, particularly so-called music from the Congo.
3:01
[SPEAKER_02]: and I will bounce on my bottom to the to the rhythm, but it wasn't just the bounce, they said I would get higher and higher and higher and people were like, I can't believe she bounced in so high and people will come to the house and say, play some music, we want to see Audra
3:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, bounce.
3:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So, um, so my mom always tells people, well, she's just had it here all of her lies, but professionally, I've been dancing for about 20 years in the traditional West African, um,
3:36
[SPEAKER_02]: um discipline and I just happened to really like accidentally fall into it.
3:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I was an undergrad at Oakland University and I was walking down the hall and I heard drumming and I was like what is what is going on?
3:53
[SPEAKER_02]: and I peaked in and I said okay what is this and then so I left it came back the next week and they were still there and it has been a love affair ever since I'm so upset with my parents that they did an introduce me to this when I was a child because I think
4:14
[SPEAKER_02]: that it really would have been like a game changer just in terms of like how I view myself in the world.
4:22
[SPEAKER_02]: But I will say that I grew up in a very like culturally rich house.
4:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's not that I wasn't aware, but it was just like the expression.
4:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I grew up as a very shy child.
4:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that
4:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I expressed myself more because my mom, she asked a cousin of mine when I was like five.
4:47
[SPEAKER_02]: She asked my cousin like, is everything okay with Achaura?
4:51
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, because I just, I was in the talker in my cousin, like a sure her like,
4:56
[SPEAKER_02]: No, she talks.
4:57
[SPEAKER_02]: She just probably just does it talk to you, but she's talking to me and so like that, you know, just experience as I reflect on it, I'm just thinking about other shy children who might need an outlet like dance or music that they don't have.
5:18
[SPEAKER_02]: going on a tangent but I truly feel that that's why arts and culture is needed because I was that child that people really thought like I could and speak I you know I just didn't have that you know like a way to like express myself yeah.
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: absolutely.
5:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what made you want to, you have your own loving passion of dance and culture, what made you want to actually open up an institute to be able to expose other people too, because you know, you could just do your own thing and dancing your own in your own capacity, but why exploded or opening up for other people.
5:58
[SPEAKER_02]: to be honest, because it's not mine to hog to myself.
6:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It is, um, it's ours.
6:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It is the quote-unquote culture.
6:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, like, if I learn something, and of course, I know something, what type of person does that make me to not share it in, be able to expose other people to the joy in the passion that I get.
6:25
[SPEAKER_02]: from dance in music.
6:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's just my motto about it is that it's our culture.
6:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not mine.
6:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it is ours to enjoy collectively.
6:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And when did that light bulb go off for you?
6:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, wherever you had in life and what time frame was it for you?
6:41
[SPEAKER_01]: When you said, you know what, I'm actually going to turn this into a thing.
6:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm actually going to make a make my own institute.
6:48
[SPEAKER_02]: um, it was actually doing COVID because, you know, dance classes were shut down and um, I was just thinking what am I going to do?
7:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like, tell my table started with, um, a few other individuals, but we didn't have the same outlook on it, you know, um, you know, some thought of it as a hobby while I was thinking to myself, I
7:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not trying to do all this hard work for a high-be like, what, none of us have time for that.
7:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, no, like I'm going to make this passion, I'm going to turn it into something.
7:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I created a 501c3 with a couple of other individuals that are now part of our board.
7:40
[SPEAKER_02]: We started off as like,
7:43
[SPEAKER_02]: a group of advisors that turned it to our board and we've been like steadily growing ever since.
7:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And Tamate has a meaning behind it.
7:54
[SPEAKER_01]: What could you tell us more about that?
7:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, so Tamate means the most beautiful in the World Bay language of the Ivory Coast.
8:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So it is the most beautiful Institute of Black Dance and Culture.
8:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Very nice.
8:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So I got more questions for you, of course, but I want to introduce in my favorite private black Friday, which is freestyle Fridays.
8:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, listen, thank you all so much for listening to this episode, and any episode at a Black Friday's podcast, but I got to be honest with you.
8:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I really think it's something missing, and I hate to draw that and notice it.
8:30
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that's missing is your podcast.
8:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Why am I not listening to your podcast?
8:35
[SPEAKER_01]: You talked about making one, which a friend's years ago, you know that you need one to better market and promote your business, but yet you still don't have one.
8:43
[SPEAKER_01]: This is why I created the pocket podcast and course to teach you how to be able to
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: and tools that you have right into finger tips in order to create.
8:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And I created two different ways in order for you to do that.
8:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You could join my digital, do it yourself, on-demand video recorded pocket podcast and course.
9:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to literally step by step from idea on how you upload your very first podcast episode.
9:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And for my people who would like to have something a little bit more tangible, I have created a digital e-book that walks you through my podcast and journey.
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: The things I've learned along the way, the tools and equipment that I use in order to create and elevate my show.
9:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Now look, I don't want to keep you too long, but I'm going to make this as simplest possible.
9:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Go ahead and head over to www.BlackFriedExPy.com to learn more about the digital podcast course and also the podcast in ebook or you can hit the links in the show notes to take you directly to each of those resources.
9:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, enough of that time to get back into that episode.
9:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I hope that you came with some bars.
9:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be ready to sing, do some poetry.
9:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You can dance, do some interpretive dance if you want to.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Freestyle for right day or you can just answer rapid fire questions, which is what Freestyle Friday is.
9:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually it is.
10:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, okay, I'll do whatever.
10:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, okay, I'm just like, okay, go.
10:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, go.
10:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
10:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
10:08
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, the first one is a layout.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you, what are you having rotation right now?
10:11
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you listening to, music wise?
10:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, music wise.
10:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I'm listening to Bodega Baddie by Cardi B. Okay.
10:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, Phil Collins, um, um, in the air tonight, that song rotation, oh my goodness.
10:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And another one that I usually go to is the Jones girls night over night's over Egypt.
10:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's like always.
10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd be like, if I got to get, if I got to get pumped up for something, I'd be like, Cardi B. If I just want to be mellow, then it is the Jones girls.
10:54
[SPEAKER_02]: But sometimes, if I need, like, motivation to clean up the house, then it's like, Phil Collins.
11:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So that'd be like, let me just put on,
11:03
[SPEAKER_02]: put this on and then I go into autopilot.
11:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
11:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
11:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Fair enough.
11:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And then are you are you a millennial?
11:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you fall into that that bracket?
11:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I do in don't.
11:15
[SPEAKER_02]: So like I was born is 79.
11:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
11:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's kind of not, but I have an important exactly.
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: You got more
11:27
[SPEAKER_02]: anything really.
11:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
11:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So I know that sounds so because people say, oh, we're the lineage or something.
11:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we understand both, like, I'm definitely not a genetics.
11:38
[SPEAKER_02]: My sister is an I'd be like, and then like, millennials, but I will say, like, I view myself as a millennial because like we all went to high school to get, you know,
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was going to ask you, what's your favorite dance move from the 90s?
11:58
[SPEAKER_02]: My favorite move from the 90s is, and I brought the hammer.
12:00
[SPEAKER_02]: How you, you want demonstrated for this?
12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh my God.
12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I can.
12:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I definitely can.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I'm out here.
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that is that made popular by MC hammers that what called the hammer or is just called the hammer actually?
12:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
12:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know, but I still do all at MC hammers for a
12:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And actually, I don't know if that was the hammer if that was the Roger Rabbit, hmm.
12:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Say now, I'm really dumb.
12:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we got to do some research.
12:43
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, we got to do some research.
12:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I was at the Roger Rabbit.
12:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the Roger Rabbit was like sad to sad.
12:49
[SPEAKER_02]: But don't quote me.
12:50
[SPEAKER_02]: OK, I'm definitely looking at it.
12:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I still got it though.
12:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I'm still out here though.
12:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, yeah.
12:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.
13:00
[SPEAKER_01]: If you could pack your bag and travel anywhere tomorrow, where would you go?
13:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say Mombasa Kenya, because I've just been really trying to go, I have not visited the east coast of Africa yet, many times if I've been on the continent.
13:27
[SPEAKER_02]: So I take that back.
13:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I was on the east part of South Africa, but not like, you know, like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda or anything.
13:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've just been really biased to West Africa, maybe because it's popular, you know, like that's what people just gravitate to.
13:46
[SPEAKER_02]: But I definitely want to see, you know,
13:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to expose myself to another, like, another lens in terms of how I view the continent.
13:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I would definitely say Mubasa Kenya.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Very dope.
14:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And then do you have a dance or creative inspiration?
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's a person, if it's a place of thing, anything that inspires you in your art.
14:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I would definitely say Pearl Primace.
14:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So Pearl Primace was a dancer.
14:25
[SPEAKER_02]: She was a researcher.
14:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But she was probably one of the first, if not the first black woman to receive grant funding, to travel to Africa to study dance.
14:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And so when she was there, she went to the country of Liberia.
14:47
[SPEAKER_02]: she brought back like her way of her interpretation of what she learned while she was in Liberia.
14:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, she made the dances her own and that had the dances that she created.
15:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Funga, um, have been like a staple part of like the black African dance culture, um, nationally, right?
15:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That's like a foundation.
15:19
[SPEAKER_02]: However though, while it's been a foundation, um, um,
15:26
[SPEAKER_02]: people we other dancers have been able to use that as like a starting point like I said a foundation to learn more you know and so I'm always saying well if you know more you you'll do more.
15:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that is how I want to be able to see myself.
15:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Like now, the world is much smaller than when pro-premise traveled and, you know, like, it's accessible enough where we can go and we don't have to like interpret
16:06
[SPEAKER_02]: anymore.
16:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
16:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we can go and like be able to stay a study under and like develop and innovate the choreographies and the the teachers and the learnings that we get over in the continent because so many of us are exposed now during those times like in the 50s and 60s and you know she had to do what she had to do in order
16:34
[SPEAKER_02]: to expose everyone because it wasn't that easy to travel back before to the continent.
16:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And now, you know, we're able to do so.
16:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, using those teachings, we're able to like be to innovate more now.
16:49
[SPEAKER_01]: very dope.
16:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you for protecting and free style Friday.
16:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually dancing for us.
16:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you're the first and every dance, every free style Friday.
16:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So we've made some history a little bit of history around Black Friday.
16:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to go back into talking about your journey with the Institute because one thing I don't believe that I asked is that for people who have not been exposed to, tell my table yet, what would you say, what services do you offer, what program and do you provide?
17:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And then also,
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'll save that part for my next question, but what services do you offer and what do you provide if people wanted to come check you all up?
17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, services is a cultural immersion, I would say, um, we have drum classes, dance classes.
17:33
[SPEAKER_02]: We also do performances.
17:36
[SPEAKER_02]: We were, um, at the African World Festival where I after sounds the blackness, where we did a, uh, 45 minute, a show with storytelling and drumming, um, we are now actually, um,
17:51
[SPEAKER_02]: partners with Detroit Public Schools District.
17:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll be having like year-round instruction in a various schools to be able to make this not only like, okay, you'll see something that African world festival or black history month.
18:10
[SPEAKER_02]: But exposure to our culture,
18:15
[SPEAKER_02]: could be year-round and it's also like you would be getting like education too but in a fun way because I view us here in Detroit around the country, around the globe of the African diaspora part like a root of a tree and we're all just representing different branches and if we like
18:44
[SPEAKER_02]: that we are different, it could lead to some like monumental progress and growth to me.
18:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that's what we offer is like, you know, you're able to just come in and ask questions.
19:00
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, and it's a way a safe space to be able to ask those questions if you are curious about
19:13
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, because it's not only like, okay, West African dance, but, you know, we bring in, um, individuals that do Congolese dance, Haitian dance, turn the daddy in dance, we did Afrobees, we did a, we hosted a Jit class.
19:31
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's really about the connection of Black people and that's what I love most.
19:36
[SPEAKER_01]: For sure.
19:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And what was the inspiration to rooted in West African style dancing?
19:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, West African dance is my back.
19:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I wanted to root it in that, because essentially, you know, black people when we were thinking about the diaspora, the diaspora has grown since, you know, enslaved Africans were brought over to this country.
20:01
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's where we came from as black people in America.
20:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So being able to, like,
20:10
[SPEAKER_02]: trace that is all of the, you know, the like, linkages and the connectivity because if you really think about it when you go to Brazil or Haiti or Cuba,
20:23
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the same practices that they have done and continue to do across along the West Coast to Africa.
20:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the same thing.
20:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a different language that they put on it now because we were removed from our ancestral languages, but it's the same practices, you know what I mean?
20:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Just like in the South Carolina coast,
20:49
[SPEAKER_02]: those individuals were there because they knew how to harvest rice.
20:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And the rice coast of West Africa where my father is from, it's Sierra Leone, it's Liberia, it's the ivory coast.
21:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But that is those are things that were, you know, brought over in
21:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to root it in West African dance because of that.
21:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And just having a conversation with you on camera now and then previously before we started recording.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Notice that you have a lot of historical knowledge in terms of the African diaspora and how things have migrated to here in Detroit and the States overall.
21:30
[SPEAKER_01]: For you with this something that you have learned in your journey in building out.
21:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Take my take in the Institute or have you always kind of been like a historian for these type of things.
21:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I hate to say because it might sound cliche but I've always been a history buff since I was a child I remember my sister and I boycotting Reebok.
21:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I was seven and she was six and we said We no longer want to wear Reeboks because they support the South African apartheid government and we not with that and my parents were like
22:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
22:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And my mom would say, you guys, people don't want to come to the house because they say you're a depressing, because you always used to be like, um, did you know that this is happening?
22:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you know that this is going on?
22:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we were just socially conscious kids?
22:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, my dad probably a typical African would watch CNN or the news channels, but
22:34
[SPEAKER_02]: We did go into another room and play video games.
22:37
[SPEAKER_02]: We actually sat there and watched the news with them.
22:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember when Nelson Mandela was free from present.
22:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And we
22:49
[SPEAKER_02]: We, it was probably as if we won a million dollars that day.
22:56
[SPEAKER_02]: The, just the screaming that we had in the house.
23:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And like my dad was just overjoyed.
23:03
[SPEAKER_02]: But we felt that too.
23:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We knew all about Nelson Mandela and Steve Beacle.
23:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember how many times I watched cry freedom.
23:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And how I was so mad.
23:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, what is going on?
23:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like,
23:17
[SPEAKER_02]: not even teen, you know?
23:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, just thinking about eyes on the prize and like the many times like we, when Rooms came out, we were right at that TV for the whole week watching.
23:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, but that's just the house like so.
23:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, like I said, I hate to sound cliche, but I mean, it was just, we were just those type of kids.
23:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I have no idea where that came from.
23:46
[SPEAKER_02]: politically aware.
23:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad you brought our roots because it's some black people.
23:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking to this camera.
23:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Some black people that have not seen roots yet.
23:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I would advise that you figure out how to watch it.
23:57
[SPEAKER_01]: There's things called the internet and you need to figure out how to watch roots and you need to watch the entire series.
24:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Not the remake.
24:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You can watch that two after you watch the original, but you need to tap in and watch roots.
24:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I got to ask you this because you said that you always been tapping to the culture and socially conscious.
24:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You've been shopping at Target lately.
24:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I have it, and you know what, but side note, but I don't even know.
24:19
[SPEAKER_02]: how that happened.
24:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I'm not saying I didn't know about the boy car.
24:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm saying like, how did I just stop shopping at Target?
24:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't, I just, I has been in the target in a while.
24:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
24:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been going into family dollars.
24:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've been like, oh, the low man is family dollars.
24:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Just waiting.
24:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just been like, just bring me a baby girl.
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm here.
24:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
24:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But nope.
24:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I was curious because the teams that the efforts or some of the blowback from the boy guys actually been working, given the fact that, you know, some of the things that they went back on in promises that they made to not only our community, but others, and so yeah, I was wondering if you had particking that granite that you had boy kind of rebuke at seven years
25:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Jimmy Kimmel.
25:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
25:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm done with them too.
25:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like that's $10 a month That could go into in my pocket again.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was just and I'm I'm I'm out here I'm out here watching regular TV with my bank on antenna now right because they they want to act up
25:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I was just like really y'all go do that.
25:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, well, I can't so you too.
25:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean It's nothing I'll do without it.
25:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean I was always the person that a that a jail break something It's like I'll get it.
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll get it one way or another.
25:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll let you leave cuz you know they'll be watching Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna get it one way or another.
25:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Come on now come on
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me ask you this.
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: How have you been able to through your art of dance and the Institute?
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: How have you been able to bring some of that social consciousness into the spaces that you enter?
26:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause I know you mentioned you are now a partner with DPSCD and also participated in the African World Festival here and some of the other programming and events that you have done.
26:22
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you able to bring some of that social consciousness into the art of dance?
26:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, you guys can really get questions.
26:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm in two initiatives that I've been working on and the organization has been working on.
26:36
[SPEAKER_02]: The first one is about access, right?
26:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And so one of our values is,
26:45
[SPEAKER_02]: tell my taste for everybody and we put all caps on body and it doesn't matter your shape, size, whatever, you know, but also on top of that is we also highlight
27:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the accessibility part of it, financial accessibility, we were able to receive a grant from the city of Detroit to allow some of our classes to be free for low income households.
27:13
[SPEAKER_02]: That's something that is very important to me because now you'll go to a dance class and this $30, I can't afford $30.
27:20
[SPEAKER_02]: How am I supposed to be talking about access?
27:24
[SPEAKER_02]: to arts and culture for our community, and I'm not addressing the financial access about it, right?
27:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that is something that is important to me, but also access in terms of disabilities.
27:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this year we will have a SL interpreter.
27:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, when we think about it as a hearing person, I take for granted that I am able to interact in the way that I do with music, right?
28:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And so as a director of an organization that is looking to extend
28:10
[SPEAKER_02]: access to arts and culture.
28:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to be mindful that it is not only me.
28:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It is everybody, right?
28:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I said, that's one, that's a mission of mine to make sure that I am producing shows that is accessible and I want it to be accessible.
28:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I truly do and that is something
28:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And so accessibility is what we've been striving for.
28:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we're not perfect, but I do think all organizations need to be thinking about that.
28:54
[SPEAKER_02]: We're a small organization, so I feel like if we can do it, a lot of larger organizations can do it also.
29:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And another initiative is we,
29:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We had been awarded some funds from the community foundation for Southeast Michigan to really research young people's attitudes around black cultural arts, right?
29:20
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't be an individual a leader of an organization and I'm saying that we want to build arts and cultural estate arts and culture for the future and I haven't asked the future.
29:33
[SPEAKER_02]: if they're even interested, right?
29:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what does it look like to have young people at the table to just ask them questions?
29:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not trying to have you in a dance class.
29:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You only need to dance.
29:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to know what you feel about arts and culture.
29:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it something that you think is sustainable?
29:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think that a career as a dancer or a musician is viable for you right now, you know?
30:03
[SPEAKER_02]: The social consciousness also that comes with, you know, art and culture.
30:11
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how movements are built.
30:15
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it usually starts off with, you know, artists.
30:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like we can even take a, like, basketball.
30:23
[SPEAKER_02]: or like the black Panther movement that happened in Oakland.
30:28
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of that foundational work was dancers and musicians, like a lot of that consciousness came out of the African dance community.
30:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And so if we think about it in the 70s, you know, when that, like,
30:46
[SPEAKER_02]: political like a stoutness where you know we were we were getting as a people that's how a lot of individuals turned to the African dance community because they wanted to connect to something bigger
31:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is what I want to be able to like share with young people, but before I share that I at least want to know if they know what the African diaspora is, I can't even assume that they would know, you know, I mean, so it's just, so those are the two initiatives that we are really we're doing and we want to also do more of because it is an about dance, while dance is great.
31:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I think in this climate right now we really need to be thinking bigger and how do we really sustain this for everybody and I mean body or caps.
31:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Got you and with that being said you're able to not only have those initiatives but also curate your own events and spaces when it comes to some of that cultural relevance in terms of the arts and creativity and I wanted you to talk about some of the events that you have
31:58
[SPEAKER_01]: created on behalf of the Institute and I know you have one that's actually going on this weekend when people were here this episode so if you could talk to us about that as well.
32:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Right so I would say a past event that we've done and I was proud of it was called from from the bar room to the dance hall so I as a dancer or someone that has been like in like
32:26
[SPEAKER_02]: the dance were for a while.
32:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So the dance hall refer to the Rage dance hall.
32:35
[SPEAKER_02]: where, like, the culture was like happening.
32:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, where the dance hall queens came from, and like, you know, Roots Rock Rage and dance hall Rage, right?
32:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And Bob Marley, you know, that, you know, it morphed, right?
32:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, from, you know, like Roots Rage to, like, dance hall, those are different types of genres of Rage, but it's still Rage.
33:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the ballroom,
33:05
[SPEAKER_02]: is where, you know, came out of like social consciousness with queer young people, black and brown, young people out of New York.
33:18
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the, the bar room in the Vogue was a political protest, right, from what was going on at the time.
33:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I combined those to show that
33:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It's similar, right?
33:35
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very similar and to show that is rooted in blackness, you know, like, you might see, you know, voting going on like on TV and back when Madonna made it popular, but that is black culture.
33:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we brought in, um, Omari Wiles from New York now is, is Chicago.
33:58
[SPEAKER_02]: He was on.
34:00
[SPEAKER_02]: season three of HBO's legendary, and he did a vlog workshop, and so I was, you know, being able to like show those, like, yeah, it's popular, but just know that is rooted in black culture and in black social consciousness.
34:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And then this weekend is the convening for Dance of Culture.
34:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It is, I will say, our, our,
34:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Big event of the year, but we do a lot of events.
34:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So I will say that this is our flagship.
34:41
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good word.
34:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Our flagship event for the year.
34:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It is two days of dancing and drumming and performance.
34:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And we showcase,
34:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Dances of the diaspora, so we'll be having Trinidadian dance, Congolese dance, Afrobeat, and as well as the traditional dances of West Africa, we have an individual that has traveled all the way from Japan.
35:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Originally from synagogue, but now lives in Japan to give
35:20
[SPEAKER_02]: we have instructors from the Ivory Coast, you know, instructors, another instructor from Senegal.
35:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So it is a way to gather community.
35:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And while we're dancing, it is to be able to act those questions in a format, in a setting where people
35:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Are comfortable right where people are saying wow you know like so where did this dance come from and you know tell me more There there dance conferences like this throughout the country.
35:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Chicago You know most of the dance classes or the dance conferences
36:06
[SPEAKER_02]: are used.
36:06
[SPEAKER_02]: The larger ones are along the coast.
36:08
[SPEAKER_02]: New York, DC, Oakland.
36:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is a way for the Midwest and I bring up Chicago because Chicago and Detroit for many years were like sister cities in terms of, you know, this, this, this cultural retention work that we're doing.
36:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a way for the the me at West to really say, you know what we got something going on right here and we're going to support each other and is is also for to put on for Detroit as well, you know, to make sure like Detroiters know that
36:51
[SPEAKER_02]: This is something that's happening and so they can tap in as well whether or not they want to just be a spectator Or they want to join full full in on the classes, but also the the concert is also a way that they could see the what they
37:09
[SPEAKER_02]: they were looking at and observing in the dance classes on the stage and that is the work that I am always nervous about because it's like okay I written and directed the show and choreograph some of the dances and now it's on public display for people and um and while I am
37:38
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, it's not mind to hold on to it's it's to be shared and for people who want to share in the experience Where can they where is it going to be and then how can they get access to tickets and information?
37:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so the dance classes are going to be the address is 3000 Finkel for eight two three eight on the west side at and the arts
38:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and our concert is going to be at the Detroit School of the Arts, um, one, two, three seldin.
38:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I think the zip code is 4, 8, 2, 0, 1.
38:17
[SPEAKER_02]: and tickets are on our website, uh, temateads.com, forward slash details, hyphen schedule, or you could just go on temateads.com and then click the the bar that says conference.
38:33
[SPEAKER_02]: That would be easy too.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Perfect.
38:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have mentioned something earlier, just speaking about young people and the arts and them understanding that that's even available for career for them, looking forward to the future.
38:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Could you give some encouraging words for young people or maybe people who are a little bit older who are interested or have always been interested in arts, whether it's dance or anything different, but encouraging words to help them pursue whatever that passion might be or that fire burning
39:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I would definitely say do what you love.
39:07
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're not an individual that wants to be on stage, you could do costume design, you could do stage management.
39:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we have a stage manager working with us.
39:19
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a projection designer who designed all of our projections that are going to be on.
39:26
[SPEAKER_02]: stage.
39:27
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a tech director who designed the lighting.
39:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So it is more than just the dance and the drumming.
39:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I think art and culture is about a larger ecosystem to make sure that we are keeping those stories and we're telling those stories and the retention of it all.
39:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And so
39:55
[SPEAKER_02]: what speaks to you and no path is the wrong path and it will be revealed.
40:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I did think I was going to be a four-time dancer.
40:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a bachelor's degree in public policy and a master's degree in urban planning, but I knew I loved to dance.
40:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, um, right before, uh, we received a 501c3 funding, someone said to me, why are you separating your career from your art?
40:29
[SPEAKER_02]: is then this and then she said it your art was what makes you that whole full person and you aren't doing anyone the service by keeping them separate and that's when I realized like you know what man that was that was a gym.
40:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And I started to move differently.
40:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So my work, my artistry, I'm dancing, but there's a lot of community engagement and development into it.
41:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why I'm very much about like access.
41:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm very much about like, what does it mean for young people?
41:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And how do we get them to tap in?
41:15
[SPEAKER_02]: because again, you know, it's about like a larger connectivity and again, like being all your whole person.
41:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And so going back to the advice, I will also tell young people
41:44
[SPEAKER_02]: The accolades will come from that definitely.
41:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Very dope.
41:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And what do you see in your crystal ball for our team I take for you, for any other thing as you may be working on, we know you got the event this weekend, but overall what do you kind of see on the horizon for the future?
42:02
[SPEAKER_02]: World domination.
42:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
42:04
[SPEAKER_01]: We take that.
42:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is World domination, and that's that.
42:12
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to take over the globe then.
42:13
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, all right.
42:16
[SPEAKER_01]: We appreciate you stopping by the podcast today.
42:18
[SPEAKER_01]: This is very insightful and enlightening and inspiring as well.
42:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love to hear what you're doing with it.
42:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Take my take and then also the festivities that's going on this weekend as well.
42:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's going to be huge in terms of culture and a lot of great things that's going on.
42:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So we appreciate it and definitely great to have you on the show today.
42:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having me.
42:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
42:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody, oh, before I forget working people find you social media website audit.
42:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell me I take the answer on everything on Instagram, Facebook, our website is TateMateDance.com.
42:52
[SPEAKER_02]: That's where we are.
42:53
[SPEAKER_02]: You can look for all of the colorful costuming and dancing as going on on the page.
43:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't make sure that you're on tap in and everybody listen and watch it.
43:04
[SPEAKER_01]: We're on tap in with you.