{"id":10449,"date":"2021-10-18T14:10:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T14:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=10449"},"modified":"2021-10-19T00:22:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T00:22:19","slug":"activism-aint-just-mlking-its-katherine-dunham-and-dancing-its-octavia-butler-and-sci-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=10449","title":{"rendered":"Activism Ain\u2019t Just MLK\u2019ing. It\u2019s Katherine Dunham and Dancing. It\u2019s Octavia Butler and Sci-Fi."},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Activism Ain\u2019t Just MLK\u2019ing. It\u2019s Katherine Dunham and Dancing. It\u2019s Octavia Butler and Sci-Fi.\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n
By Trelani Michelle<\/pre>\r\n
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\"Melvin
[Artist Melvin Beasley, “Heavenly Dance”]<\/p><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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When we think of activism, we think of Martin, Malcolm, Rosa, Fannie, and the likes. We think of people on microphones in churches and on Capitol Hill. We think of people in the streets protesting with signs and bullhorns, saying what we ain\u2019t gon\u2019 tolerate. And we\u2019re right to think that. It is.<\/p>\r\n
It\u2019s more than that though.<\/p>\r\n
Activism is also dancing. Katherine Dunham reminded me that. Born on June 22nd, 1909 in the suburbs of Chicago, she started dancing in her late teens. Soon after, she started teaching young, black kids in the neighborhood dance techniques. While in college, she switched her major to anthropology.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
Katherine Dunham narrowed her focus to dance then earned fellowships to travel to places like Haiti, Jamaica\u2019s\u00a0maroon communities<\/a>, and Trinidad to study how they danced, how they moved. She wrote about how they didn\u2019t separate spirituality from dance and about how their techniques originated in Africa. And she brought those dances back to the U.S.<\/p>\r\n
When she had to choose between college or dance, she opened the Katherine Dunham School\u00a0of Dance and Theatre near\u00a0Times Square\u00a0in New York and started touring the world. Eartha Kitt and so many others got their first start at this school.<\/p>\r\n
There\u2019s activism all through the story already, but here\u2019s more:<\/p>\r\n