This program is made possible by Lyndhurst Foundation, contributing to the long term livability and resilience of the greater Chattanooga area.

And by Benwood Foundation, supporting shared prosperity in Chattanooga through strategic grant-making, collaborative problem solving, and adaptive leadership.

And by Footprint Foundation, creating connection for a more equitable community.

And by ArtsBuild building stronger communities through the arts.

And by Tennessee Arts Commission, cultivating the Arts for the benefit of all Tennesseans and their communities.

And by Robert Finley Stone Foundation.

Art is.

Art is like water.

It gives life and restores.

Like air it keeps us alive.

Like the earth it is forever moving.

Like the sun, it warms.

Like the moon it has power.

Like trees it stands the test of time and bear the fruit that emotionally feeds Its leaves change just as art evolves.

Each story... has purpose.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

One.

And then it's staying down until that moment.

Okay, arm question.

Is that arm behind the body?

Is it... You want in, Do you want it reaching out?

is it through 5th for the turn?

And then here.

That looks great.

Just a reminder of what the next week looks like.

So what the rehearsal schedule is and the shoot days.

And that's why you need to b practicing outside of rehearsal.

I see dance as artistic expression.

I just want to kind of lose myself in it.

It's the most perfect, most beautiful art form that there is.

I have two little brothers, one of my brothers who was born with Down Syndrome, and later, when he was three years old, he was diagnosed with autis and was no longer able to speak and actually doesn't speak, verbally, to this day.

My name is Emma and this is my story.

I just love family.

Family is the most important thing to me.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, 7, 8.

Then Ryan and Maddie will have group hip-hop really featured.

Where it's not seen from the backstage and all this going on.

So we feel like it's a moment to, like, really bring it.

My father left when I was eight years old.

I thought he didn't love me.

But he was 16 years old when I was born.

So he was still a kid himself.

His father wasn't there for him.

So it's kind of like a cycle.

*music* Yeah, I can move.

But thank God I don't move like you.

Thank God I didn't inherit the way you refuse to ever grow roots or get used to ho you would project your bruises while mama would protect from you.

Thank God I don't roll like stones thrown through the glass walls we live behind for so long.

Thank God I don't leave sharp, shattered edges of eggshells to be bled on.

And yet still called home.

Thank God I don't leave the pieces for someone else to stumble upon.

Thank God I don't move like you.

Because the way I move has to be certain.

My feet can't be burdened by lost conscience, searching for lost purpose, or worrying about the hurtful verses they have written and choreographed and forced upon another person.

I, I know, you know about dark nights.

Some of my days were even darker, but mama still taught us to pray to the father.

So when me and her daughter wer drowning in sorrow on Sundays, I would wade in the water.

I would wade in the water and praise and still pray for my father.

But you only strayed even farther.

And when we saw you, when you were estranged it made it even harder not to hate you.

I know hate is a strong word.

And sometimes the hate in me.

hates that I can't hate you more than I love you.

And I love you.

You can thank mom for that.

We both can.

Because although I'd lost hope that you were coming back, she told me to understand, and I tried.

And that I failed until that moment arrived.

When you cried and told me everything I wanted to say, sitting across from me and singing the song of the toxic and damning breath that had been churning in my lungs for so long.

As I watched the regret stream down your cheeks while you flailed and drowned it.

Though I didn't want to save you, I wanted you to be safe maybe this was my greatest betrayal.

Maybe this is my greatest rejection.

Maybe this is my greatest rebellion.

Maybe this is mama's greatest revenge.

That she made a ma that can move to the memories of your sharp percussions and crash and silence and absence and sudden irrational rages.

To find a place to move through and pass through the stages of reconciliation.

Just maybe this is mama's greatest victory.

To taught me the steps to a dance that you never knew.

Hey dad.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five and six.

Seven and eight.

On eight we step one, two.

So dance has always come very naturally to me.

It's something that I resonate with in terms of a language that I speak.

And I've always felt like there are these parts of me that I can only communicate through movement and through my body.

I just want people to see that I am a 22 year old, queer woman living in the South just going on through my daily life with this severe and persistent mental illness, and it is me.

I'm not separate from my mental illness because it's the way that I perceive and move through the world.

If I were to wish upon congruence a multitude of me would remain unseen.

I carry the weight of a thousand fragmentations.

Split me down the middle, and my right foot would find home My left foot dips into the ethers, onto a plane where I slip into, through you, over me.

One can predict the speech pattern.

My tone, it's childlike.

When I slip.

A dizzy spell of paralyzing fear to my legs.

If you were to tell me that my legs still have muscles, that they will hold my weight.

Yet, you have not held the waning moon within your feet.

How else do you explain this wandering?

of toe to foot?

Earth to leg.

I stumble on stilts.

The kind you buy in your mind.

I become a quilt of shredded wisdom.

It becomes a collage of me to me.

My life becomes a title of a book.

Unwritten Psychosis And.

Chapter one: The sounds are not calling your name.

Suffocation.

The cars outside aren't screaming at you.

Chapter two: There's this inevitable fall back to reality.

Tie me up in shadows before they come knocking on my door.

It is an epilog.

I cast remembrance of the brains who got too tired.

My neurons fire for you every day.

Three.

Four.

Five and six.

Seven.

Eight.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

Eight.

Youre gonna have your hands pretty high up.

And youre going to be in relevé if you can be.

Okay.

Next time I'll get you to scoot in.

I don't do well with isolation.

I like to be around people.

I like to connect with people.

I like to see peoples smiling faces in person.

I think laughter is essential to life and to happiness.

NOOOOOOOO!

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

As you can see, this side is going to accent.

You guys would go this way now.

And whoever this is you would set me up.

Cool.

5 & 6, 7, 8.

I'm like, its over there, its over there.

You have homework.

You have homework to go over these details and to know this.

Resistance.

Vulnerability.

Acceptance.

We had just been together a year when the pandemic hit.

The quarantine started in a 900 square foo apartment with my new partner.

I tried to manage my schedule and what I was going to do day by day.

Whereas my partner just kind of let go and trying to live together, while we managed our anxieties in different ways, was hard.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Can you hear me calling out your name?

You know that Im falling and I don't know what to say.

I'll speak a little louder.

Hell, I'll even shout.

You know that I'm proud and I can't get the words out.

Oh!

I wanna be with you everywhere.

Oh, I I wanna be with you everywhere.

I wanna be with you everywhere.

Something's happening, happening to me my friends say I'm acting peculiarly.

Oh, come along, baby, we'd better make a start.

You better make it soon.

Before you break my heart.

Oh, I. I wanna be with you everywhere.

Oh, I. I wanna be with you everywhere.

Can you hear me calling out your name.

You know that I'm falling.

And I don't know what to say.

Come along baby, we better make a start You better make it soon before you break my heart.

Oh, I. I wanna be with you everywhere.

Oh, I I wanna be with you everywhere.

Oh, I I wanna be with you everywhere Oh, I I wanna be with you everywhere.

Oh I I wanna be with you everywhere Wanna be with... Oh I I wanna be with you everywhere.

Wanna be with you everywhere The pandemic right now, the U.S. coronavirus more than 26.2 million confirmed cases here in the U.S., California, Illinois and Conneticut all ordering nonessential employee to stay home.

Those orders cover 75 million..

The populations of Illinois and Conneticut will be all soon be under orders to stay home...

The mayor here in L.A. says a month, he thinks it could be, two.

And we just heard from....

But what is the significance of this?

Two.

Three.

Four.

Yeah, I like that fast footwork.

You're going to be center.

But then the other storytellers are like their faces all are all around you.

And we're kind of imagining this, like, very beautiful like, painting.

1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Yeah.

I think you guys can tell that Im starting to feel really stressed about where we are compared to where we need to be.

um, so, please just do the work that you need to do on your own to get there, as a group.

And it'll take every single one of us.

Dear Ma, (speaking Visaya) Thank you.

Thank you for everything that youve done.

Thank you.

I can't even imagine what it was like to move to a completely different country, alone.

To be oceans away from everyone and everything you knew.

To leave your husban and nine month old child behind.

To sacrifice everything then so that I can stand here now.

So that our family's future is better.

I'm 26 now.

You were 23 then.

You are my hero.

(speaking Visaya) Thank you for your hard work.

Thank you for your strength.

Thank you for your victory.

Ma, this is for you.

When our faith was on the edge Of the wind The summer days on end to be.

There are no more to blame.

To blame.

In every one of us there is a heart that rises Burning below us again.

And the world beneath my fingers float the sound That there will never be the end of us The end of us.

When in song we are blessed to be.

Mending the rift of our apathy I have the answer You will remain Days on end after the end of the cancer One day youll follow at the sound of laughter One day well Fall in love 5, 6 7, 8 5 & 6, 7 & 8.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1.

Oh, my God, that looks so good.

It's two weeks from today that we're filming.

Oh my God, we are getting there.

It's going to happen.

It's going to be dope.

It's going to be amazing.

I was panicking on Wednesday.

I as I shared, and now I'm like, okay, it's going to happen.

It's going to get there.

5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, cut.

So, can you g to your final formation for us.

The camera's going to zoom, on you, there.

I'm a 30 year old man in America who is Black, who is proud of being Black, despite the risk in America.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Day after day.

New times, same place.

Here we stay.

You walk through the streets uninhibitedly, can you wish peace for me?

The right to be treated equally.

To walk the streets without anxiety.

To be heard and seen unequivocally.

To be treated like you and you as me.

While, my skin is dark.

There's more to me.

I am not a threat.

Speak and you'll see.

I'm human like you.

So please let me breathe.

They want you to stay silent.

Oh, their words stir my violence So you know better?

400 years, you still won't let us.

What's wrong with my desire?

My people trying to survive.

Were fighting for our lives.

We paid the price No, you cannot deny.

Lives broken.

These dreams stolen.

Black: my skin, my hair, my getup.

Scars on me carry years of oppression.

Our hearts stay firm hope these words dont shatter.

Look in my eyes.

Black lives do matter.

This is our war cry Amidst all the gun fire Blood pressure is rising.

Make some noise no more silence Listen, my brothers, my sisters now get ‘em.

Lines been drawn, no time just hit ‘em.

We gon make up hear us We gon make ‘e, see us.

We just want our equal rights.

No more trying to survive.

We just want our equal rights.

No more trying to survive.

Is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

If I use my words you still think I'm a rebel.

See me on the streets?

Switched lanes.

No trouble.

Does it bother you?

Your racism is subtle.

So tell me how we can feel safe.

I see your looks as I go from place to place.

This Black is not a mistake.

This Black is not a sealed fate Humanitys calling us all Humanitys calling all of us Black: my skin, my hair, my getup.

Scars on me carry years o oppression.

Our hearts stay firm hope these words don't shatter.

Look in my eyes.

Black lives do matter.

This is our war cry.

Amidst all the gun fire.

Blood pressure is rising.

Make some noise no more silence.

This for my brothers.

my sisters, now get ‘em.

Lines been drawn no time just hit ‘em.

We gon make ‘em hear us.

we gon make ‘em see us.

We gon make ‘em hear us.

we gon make ‘em see us.

We gon make ‘em hear us.

We gon make ‘em see us.

We gon make ‘em hear us we gon make em see us.

Closed door lying on the floor.

Altered ego, altered negro.

Dual dimensions in one we are free though.

Birth, hungry to live but given a placebo.

We go back and fort between bondage and work clothes The flow.

Constipated consonants.

Quarantined to the toilet, I mean TV, the news.

Static, the change.

Mask the comment contain that rage?

No more hashtags.

We gon make ‘em hear us We gon make ‘em see us.

Youre all here with family Theyre the reasons I am Black.

and free.

My Black is free Blessed Black.

Blessed Black.

Joy, unspeakable.

Blessed Black.

Blessed Black.

Thats right.

Give me the flow.

Give me the flow.

Im finna go now.

Im feelin the vibe, feeling with life, Im gonna roll now I got melodies I got memories I got tendencies to be hella free.

Open the door down.

Black is so precious its precious.

We still finessing this question Some blessings.

I complete the 7 to 7.

The vibes is refreshing.

My essence extended from heaven, thats me.

We gonna make ‘em hear us.

We gonna make ‘em hear us.

We gonna make ‘em hear us.

Time is never time.

at all And you can never, ever leave without leaving a piece of youth.

Our lives are forever changed.

We will never be the same.

And the more you change, the less you feel.

Believe.

Believe in me.

Believe that life can change that you're not stuck in vain.

We're not the same were different Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight.

So bright, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight.

And you, you know youre never sure, but youre sure you could be right.

If you held yourself up to the light.

And the embers never fade in your city by the lake, the place where you were born.

Believe.

Believe in me.

Believe.

Believe.

In the resolute urgency of now.

And if you believe theres not a chance Tonight.

Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight.

Yeah Well crucify the insincere tonight.

Yeah.

Well make things right.

Well feel it all tonight.

Yeah we will find a way to offer up tonight.

The indescribable moments of your life.

The impossible is possible tonight.

Believe in me as I believe in you Cut!

Cut!

Thats a wrap!

The world stops turning.

The curtains close.

And the shadows are darker than they've ever been.

And they wonder if the night will ever sing.

Ever dance.

Ever shine again.

And we ask, “How could it not?” This show will go on.

And in this moment all that we are is the light and the shadows part for us.

In this moment will reveal ourselves brilliant stars in this constellation dancing in our sky.

In thi moment we illuminate our world in a single gloriou beam of unified souls soaring.

returning to this stage again and again.

Passing through this prism where our paths converge in purpose and pain.

Art and acceptance, love and healing, ultimate triumph.

In this moment, we decide that we are not defined by our darkness, and it is in this moments stars that we realize that all that we have is all that we share, and that all that we are is the light.

This program is made possible by Lyndhurst Foundation, contributing to the long term livability and resilienc of the greater Chattanooga area, and by Bentwood Foundation supporting shared Prosperity and Chenue.

This new strategic grantmaking, collaborative problem solving, and adaptive leadership.

And by Footprint Foundation, creating connections for a more equitable community and by art build building stronger communities through the arts and by Tennessee Arts Commission.

Cultivating the Arts for the benefit of all Tennesseans and their communities.

And by Robert Stanley Stone Foundation.