Visitors at CAMHLAB at POST Houston, 2024. Photo by Tasha Gorel.
UHURU DANCES: Sites of Liberation
About
UHURU DANCES: Sites of Liberation is a site-specific community gathering organized by CAMHLAB artists-in-residence Nia’s Daughters. The gathering will feature a movement workshop and a dance/photography project to commemorate the lives and shared histories of Freedmen’s Town.
Inspired by the Swahili word for “freedom,” UHURU DANCES is a celebration of resistance for Black people in Texas. The purpose of this work is to conjure memory and inspire people to learn about their own family histories that include resilience and legacy. The culminating work, consisting of the pinnacle community workshop and a dance/fashion photography project, draws equal inspiration from the histories of Freedmen’s Town residents, Afrofuturism, and architecture of the historic Bethel Church Park.
For their residency, Nia’s Daughters repertory will include The Fairytale Project, which centers the love, life, and legacy of Jim and Winnie Shankle, founders of the freedom colony in Shankleville, Texas; Aesthetic Inheritances, which centers the Barrett Station freedom colony in northeast Harris County; and Liturgy of Remembrance, which centers the National Black United Front’s (NBUF) Annual Caravan to the Ancestors with the story of the Freedom Tree in Missouri City, Texas. The group also plans to offer virtual or hybrid screenings of their work that is inspired by Texas’ freedom colonies.
Support
Phase 1 of Rebirth in Action is generously supported by Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.