- Coming up on "American Black Journal," the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is coming to Detroit.

And we're gonna talk with the choreographer behind one of the group's most enduring classic performances.

Plus, we'll hear from two Detroit women DJs about the city's popular techno music scene.

Stay where you are.

"American Black Journal" starts right now.

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(upbeat music) - Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm Stephen Henderson.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is making a stop here in Detroit, March 14th through 16th as part of its US tour.

The performances at the Detroit Opera House will celebrate the life and legacy of the company's late artistic director, emerita, Judith Jamison.

It's also the 25th anniversary of the group's classic production called "Grace," which depicts individuals on a journey to the promised land.

Here are portions of a performance of "Grace," followed by my conversation with the choreographer, Ronald K. Brown.

♪ Clean look down at the sea ♪ My people through (funky music) (singer singing indistinctly) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (singers singing indistinctly) - Ronald Brown, welcome to "American Black Journal."

- Thank you so much.

It's my pleasure to join you.

- Yeah, yeah, so it's exciting, every year when Alvin Ailey comes here to the city of Detroit.

I first saw the company perform when I was six here in the 1970s at the music hall, and I've seen it many times since.

There is something about right now, though, the time that we're living in, the things that we're living through that makes me feel, I guess, more attached to and more inspired by the work that the company does.

Talk about why Alvin Ailey is important in 2025.

- I understand, because it's about hope and resilience, and we need that acknowledgement more than ever during this time.

- Yeah, yeah.

You guys are celebrating something pretty special this year.

Talk about Judith Jamison and the influence that she had over Alvin Ailey.

- Yes, so the 25th anniversary of "Grace" is quite amazing and when you create something, you don't know how long it's going to last and how relevant it will be.

But I'm so happy that Ms. Jamison gave me the opportunity to create my first piece on the company and we're able to bring grace back to the world again and say yes, even in the darkness of times, God gives us grace.

- Yeah.

Talk a little more for our viewers about "Grace," and what inspired you to create it and the message that it conveys.

- Yeah, so when Ms. Jamison asked me to create a piece of the company, the word grace came to my mind right away.

I had seen the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1972 on a school trip when I was in the second grade.

I went home and made a dance.

I started making up dances.

But I would've never imagined that that boy who made a dance would choreograph a piece on that company that inspired him.

And so, because Mr. Ailey loved Duke Ellington, I looked to Duke Ellington's sacred concerts and found all these versions of "Come Sunday."

God, please come down and see about your people.

And that is what "Grace" is.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And Judith Jameson is the person who commissions you to do that.

That begins your work, right, with with Alvin Ailey.

- Yes, yes.

Yeah, so she became an incredible supporter of mine, incredible mentor, and went on to create seven pieces on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

And so praise be to the first one, and actually a testament to that whole legacy of giving someone an opportunity to do something special.

- Yeah, yeah.

Both you and I first saw Alvin Ailey as children in the 70s.

I think that's kind of interesting.

But talk about, and you know, I can remember that first performance really clearly.

The impression it makes on young people, on children, the connection that it draws between, particularly I think African American children and American culture, is important.

Talk about what that looks like now, almost 50 years later.

- Duke Ellington, he has hundreds of versions of "Come Sunday."

I knew one version by Juniper Holiday, but then I found this version by Jimmy McFeo 1967, the only version sung by a man that I found.

And so that gave me the inspiration to make the God figure in the peace be a woman, and come down to earth with some angels who are around other people who are behaving and if they don't understand God's grace.

And it gives you an opportunity to talk to folks of all ages.

I had a wonderful conversation with my nephew.

He was having trouble in class once and the teacher told him, "If you snooze, you lose."

He called me and said, "Well, she's supposed to teach me.

How can she say that?"

And so we talked about, what does that mean.

Have you done your work?

So she can give you another chance, but you have to earn it.

- Yeah.

- And so we talking about grace and God's grace, and so he gives it to you just for being.

- Yeah.

- But you have to earn grace in life, too.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's talk about the company and, I guess, kind of where it is in 2025, how well it's doing, the things that you guys have planned for the near future.

I know there's always a lot of innovation coming out of Alvin Ailey.

- Well, my company, Evidence, is on tour.

We're in Seattle now.

But the Ailey company is going around the world with "Grace," and another piece I put on the company, "Dancing Spirit."

And so, I'm so happy that Ailey and Evidence are sharing "Grace" around the world and I'm excited.

- Yeah.

What kind of feedback do you get from people who see it for the first time?

"Grace," I mean.

- I think people say often, it's a new Revelations.

Yeah, so.

- Wow.

That's pretty heavy.

- Yeah, and so that's a gigantic compliment and amazing feat.

- Yeah.

How often do you get to perform it?

- We get to do it, I think we'll do it maybe 10 times during our touring season this year.

- Yeah.

Yeah, and when you're doing it now, what does that feel like?

I mean, given that you created this thing and it's had this incredible life, what is it like to be inside of it, on a stage?

- You know, so when I created the piece, it gave my work a different exposure because Ailey tours around the world, and so interest in my work increased.

And so it is amazing to be able to share it on two different companies around the world.

Yeah.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, Ronald Brown, it was really great to have you with us.

We look forward, of course, to Ailey being here in Detroit.

Thanks so much for joining us on "American Black Journal."

- Thanks for having me.

- March is Women's History Month, and our next story is about two pioneering women on the Detroit techno scene.

They are known as DJ Minx and DJ Holographic.

Both are scheduled to appear at this year's Detroit Movement Festival over the Memorial Day weekend.

"American Black Journal" contributor Micah Walker from "Bridge Detroit" talked with the women about their musical influences, their personal coming out stories, and what's next in their careers.

- [Micah] Detroit is known as the birthplace of techno.

Adding to that legacy, DJ Minx, a legend in the city's techno scene, and DJ Holographic, who's learning from those who came before her.

How did the two of you meet?

- Ariel and I met through of course music and being two black women from Detroit, playing this thing called techno and house music.

- Yeah.

- And me being mentorish, once I know about a young lady doing some music, I've gotta meet them.

So I went to a party where she was, just to meet her specifically.

- I love that.

- [Micah] Holographic looks up to Minx, and the two have formed a bond for music.

- I'm super honored to get to know her more and more every day.

And I'm trying to remember the first time I met you, but I know how many times I've heard of you.

I heard so many people say like, "If you don't know Minx, you don't know nothing yet."

And I was like, you're right.

And it just uplifted me to see you because I knew I'm in the right place at the right time.

- Both of you performed that movement this year.

You've been there several times.

What makes each time so special?

- I would say each time is so special 'cause I've been going since I graduated high school, and I've been going every summer, every year.

The Heart Plaza and being the heart of the city of Detroit to hear music that African Americans made, a house music, techno, it's gratifying.

For this past year, oh my god, it was like the best one.

I got to play a really fun, phenomenal set and I gotta see some of my favorite artists, like Terrance Parker, and I got reinspired and getting to dance and express myself and seeing my other family, 'cause that's what it is.

Movement is like another family.

- Absolutely.

Movement is like a family reunion every year.

And a lot of people around the world actually know that.

- [Micah] Minx has been a fixture at the Movement Festival for more than 20 years.

- I have a stage every year, so I do a house show live stage and we bring in artists that a lot of them haven't played Movement or been there before.

But the elevating of not only artists period, but LGBTQ community that come in and they play and they dance with us, it's like building another family on top of the one we already have.

- What were some of the music that you grew up listening to?

- At Motown, Michael Jackson.

- Diana Ross, honey.

- Diana Ross.

- Yes.

The Jacksons, Marvin Gaye.

- Aretha Franklin.

- Yep.

- A lot of Michael Jackson for me.

At 18, I started listening to Prince, and then the radio, it's the radio that really raised me for music here in Detroit.

- Electrifying Mojo.

- How has that shaped the music you're making today?

- First of all, with us talking about the Electrifying Mojo, he was on WGPR and he introduced me to a lot of the music that I still play today because his music is timeless as well.

He played a lot of prints, he played a lot of tracks that no one else played on different stations, like the B52s and Massage, Frequency 7 stuff.

He played a lot of new wave.

And this is stuff you hear right now that's being produced by house music DJs, using the same samples.

- [Holographic] Yeah.

And we can still play that music today.

- [Micah] How did clubs, like the Music Institute, help you realize that you want to be a DJ?

- Going to the Music Institute and seeing those people dance like they cared about nothing in the world, and them, just being such a togetherness at this place, that was a feeling that I wanted to deliver.

I saw the DJ at the Music Institute and he would be getting down.

I was like, "Ah, I think I can be a DJ."

But realistically, it was my mentor that pushed me to say, "Well if you wanna be a DJ, be a DJ."

The first thing I thought was, "Nope, I'm a woman.

I can't do that."

So then I started hearing about the women that were DJ'ing, like, there was Stacy and there was Kayhan, rest her soul, and Serena Tyler.

And I just, you know, started practicing and realizing that it is something that I as well could do.

- I worked at a nightclub called Nocto when I was 20, and I used to be in the Nectarine Ballroom where Jeff Mills was the wizard, like long ago.

And he had a residency there and I would hear the DJs perform there every night and hear how he would get people to come to the dance floor, but also let them go to chat and mingle with other people.

So I can see like there was an art to it and I just wanted to be a part of that.

- [Micah] DJ Minx and DJ Holographic share their coming out journeys as queer artists as well.

In 2021, Minx came out publicly on Instagram, saying in the post, "So here I am, Minx, DJ, producer, mama, partner, lesbian, friend."

- I've got friends that thought it was a bad idea for me to come out.

I've had a husband, I have daughters, and I looked like the, I guess, homebody that people wanted to see out there DJ'ing.

But just constantly hearing that it wasn't a good idea to let people know that, you know, I lived the way I lived, so I had to get over that.

Finally just let it go.

When I actually did come out, the phone calls that I got, like at that moment, like the posts went up, I'd sat and my managers were all like, "We're gonna be up."

But people that read the post were calling me.

"Holy smokes, I cannot believe it.

I love you so much.

Thank you for doing this."

One person said, you know, "You just helped me.

I just came out.

But you let it be known that it can be done."

And like an entire world opened up.

- Even with my family, like I came out in a weird way of being bi.

And people also, even the community, in our community, are not the nicest to bis.

But it was still that moment of when I told my family this, this is where it got kind of weird 'cause I expressed it to my mother.

It was a whole 'nother topic that we were having, and then it came up slightly to this topic of being, okay, this is when I'm gonna be vulnerable with you.

We're talking about something else where I'm gonna be vulnerable with you and honest about me, liking this girl at school.

But I don't know she fully understood or like, was willing to make the next move because I don't know, there was no book on the conversation, but she was listening and then of course, she told her mom, which is my grandmother and my grandmother just said, which really made me very happy that she said like, "As long as you meet someone that respects you."

And that was really nice, 'cause that means I got like, reinforcement there.

I played a majority only queer places in my first five years of DJ'ing.

So there was not a conversation of like, coming out.

I'm like, I'm here.

(laughs) Like, I'm here, I'm here and I'm queer.

- But it was always naturally there.

- What's next for the two of you?

Any future collaborations?

- Yeah, we've got something brewing.

Very, very Detroit.

I am currently planning my 2025 Movement stage.

I have a few remixes coming out soon.

- I only wanna think about five minutes ahead, but in truth, it's gonna be music, it's gonna be art, and it's gonna be Detroit, always.

My biggest thing right now is, the Zodiac thing is a big project for mine, and just like really just working on my music, honestly.

Like I love digging and working on music, though.

I have a lot of stuff.

The funny part is like, I'm an ambitious person, so I don't think I'm doing a lot.

- You're probably doing a whole lot.

- I'm doing too much.

- Yeah.

- I'm doing the most.

- Exactly.

Right, you're the one that's doing the most.

- That's all for our show, this week.

You can find out more about our guests in americanblackjournal.org, and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.

♪ Oh, I've been mute and I've been swung ♪ ♪ I've been talked about, shows you are ♪ ♪ I set my foot on the castle ship ♪ ♪ The ship began to move ♪ It carried me over and it came to this land ♪ ♪ And went on with every man ♪ Oh, fix me, Jesus ♪ Oh, fix me, Jesus ♪ Oh, fix me, oh ♪ Fix me, Jesus ♪ Fix me (upbeat music) (singers chanting) ♪ Wave in the water ♪ Wave in the water ♪ Wave in the water ♪ For Adonis in the water ♪ I would not be a gambler ♪ I'll tell you the reason why ♪ 'Cause if my Lord should call on me ♪ ♪ Lord, I wouldn't be ready to die ♪ ♪ Run to the sea ♪ Sea, won't you hide me ♪ Run for the sea, sea, won't you hide me ♪ ♪ Run to the sea, sea, won't you hide me ♪ ♪ All on that day ♪ Run to the Lord ♪ Lord, won't you hide me ♪ Run to the Lord ♪ Lord, won't you hide me ♪ Run to the Lord ♪ Lord, won't you hide me ♪ All on that day