- How do I define joy?
Joy is resistance.
Joy is a Capri Sun.
To live in the United States as a Black person
is an act of resistance, is an act of radical joy.
Hey, y'all, my name is Dr. Shamell Bell,
pronouns they, the she series.
I like to be called sis, so what's up, sis?
[laughter and chatter] And--yeah, that's it.
And I'm feeling just incredible and excited
to be here and just honored and ready to stand
in my purpose and do my calling, y'all.
So, my favorite social dance move--
y'all could probably already guess it-- it's the dougie.
all: Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
- All right, so in five, six, seven,
everybody hit that dougie, if you know how.
Hit that dougie.
In his book "Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Tradition,"
Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley advises,
"Without new visions, we don't know what to build,
"only what to knock down.
"We not only end up confused, rudderless and cynical,
"but we forget that making a revolution
"is not a series of clever maneuvers and tactics,
but a process that can and must transform us."
With the inspiration of Kelley,
we do collective freedom dreaming
through dance, meditation and collective action.
So, street dance activists, we lead you all
in a process of transcendence and transformation
that shifts us towards a new vision,
and a dance piece of liberation.
[upbeat music]
With Street Dance Activism, we want to move you
Move you, with your body, move you, from the feelings of always being in lack
So if we’re always looking at what we don’t want.
Or what we don’t have, Or what we want to dismantle,
what we want to destroy. What we want to decolonize…
then we don’t have the space for radical imagination.
So what we do with our bodies
We all come, our full selves
and our bodies moving,
and were welcoming that radical new vision and imagination
and so what were doing is, when we're playing the sound bowls…
we're dreaming of that new shift
that new vision that new
dance piece of liberation
It has all dancers welcome
and it's more than just dancing.
We set intentions. And not only do we set intentions for what we are moving
We are lifting frequencies. We are lifting vibrations. It's a healing modality.
And it's something that's getting us out of our despair and our grief.
And we're processing through those emotions.
We’re transcending and we’re transforming
Like Robin Kelly asked us to do.
That it should be a process of transformation
and that is what we're doing with Street Dance Activism.
In order to understand your joy,
you got to understand the pain, right?
And so, like, in order for us to understand light,
you got to know what the dark is.
And so I think that that's something
that's really important with street dance activism.
We want us to go through all of our different
ranges of emotions, right?
So, sometimes, we let it all out--
the pain, the grief,
you know, and we process those emotions,
but we bring it to the other side,
which is then joy, right?
But you need that pain in order to understand joy.
But, you know what?
My affirmation is this.
I no longer wanna learn lessons
through pain and suffering.
I want to learn lessons through ease and flow and radical joy.
And I think a lot of that is a choice that we're making
with street dance activism,
understanding that there's a process that we are to grieve,
but in that process of grief, there's a choice to shift
our perspective to that which we cannot see
but we know that is tangible, and just right there
if we just move toward it.
It is our duty to fight for freedom.
all: It is our duty to fight for freedom.
- It is our duty to win.
all: It is our duty to win.
- We must love and protect one another.
all: We must love and protect one another.
- We have nothing to lose but our chains.
all: We have nothing to lose but our chains.
- Loud. - It is our duty to fight for freedom!
all: It is our duty to fight for freedom!
- It is our duty to win!
all: It is our duty to win!
- We must love and protect one another!
all: We must love and protect one another!
- We have nothing to lose but our chains!
all: We have nothing to lose but our chains!
- Ashe. all: Ashe.