Part of an ongoing performance and documentary effort focused on Black women in street and club dance culture, this session of Black Dancing Bodies continues to explore the power of the choreopoem; first coined in 1975 by writer Ntozake Shange (for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf); Each member of the collective responds to the question, “If I could speak my mind, what would I say?” In this world premiere, experience new writings, music, and movement spanning dance styles from African, to waacking, vogue, Hip-hop, and house; all curated under the direction of Michele Byrd-McPhee.

“Each woman’s voice stands powerfully on its own.”

—Dance Enthusiast

SpeakMyMind was commissioned by Works & Process, developed in Works & Process LaunchPAD residencies at Bethany Arts Community (2022, 2023, and 2024) and Catskill Mountain Foundation (2022), and Office Hours Residency at The Kennedy Center (2023) with performances at the Guggenheim Museum, Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the National Gallery of Art, SummerStage, Dancers Responding to AIDS Hudson Valley Dance Festival, and New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

SpeakMyMind is a 2023 New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project grantee, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and Mellon Foundation.

Ladies of Hip-Hop: Black Dancing Bodies, world premiere co-commissioned by Works & Process and Bethany Arts Community, March 27, 2022. Photo: Works & Process/Titus Ogilvie-Laing