Throughout the course of my time as a Graduate student at The Ohio State University, I’m exploring the Black performing body. My research looks at how Black women use these themes as tools of reclamation, activism, and visibility in performance. My trip to Brazil  in February 2020, will inform my research in the continuity of black womanhood within the African diaspora, and the similarities and differences that exist within it.

To further my research within the making process, I want to utilize the methodologies of auto-ethnography and embodied practice. Using the dissertation work of LaVette M. Burnette (2019) and Courtney Allen (2019),  I’m interested in investigating within the choreographic process the methodology of sister circles. Most commonly used within higher education, sister circles provide a space to problematize issues black women face, come up with solutions, and create community. As well as establishing a safe space to enjoy the company of other black women. Using the scholarship of Melissa Harris-Perry’s Sister Citizen, I want to choreographically navigate stereotypes and explore ways in which to use negative portrayals of black women for empowerment. Along with critically engaging with hip-hop feminism and Gwendolyn Pough’s idea of black women “bringing wreck,” through popular culture performance.

Questions I’m Asking

• How can we as Black women continue to keep awake, relevant, and progressing our identity?
• How does the awareness of our identity as Black women performers inform and influence our movement making?
• What is the difference between making a safe space verses a brave space?