Dear friends,

 

In November 2020, I left New York City because I felt disconnected, from myself, from my purpose, and from the people around me in this humungous city. I felt like an outsider, not only in the dance world, but in the city at large. After some tumultous years of self-reflection, of analyzing the systems of conditioning and disconnection (e.g., racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, capitalism, ableism, neurotypicalism, etc.) at play in my story and in the world, I, like many of us, knew for sure that many spaces we have experienced (including many dance spaces) were not designed to meet our needs, especially our need for deep connection.

 

Because of our experiences within these spaces, we have known very well what it is like to hide ourselves. I certainly was hiding myself before the pandemic. But many of us have used this time to no longer hide our selves, how we feel, or what we need. We have been choosing to ground our selves in our raw selves, our truest selves, our authentic selves. And we have learned that the practice of being our selves requires spaces of deep connection, of home, of family that holds us in our rawest of selves. I have returned to New York City to join with others who are also leading, developing, or dreaming of spaces of deep connection.  I have returned to initiate the building of a homebase centering deep connection, bringing together people and groups in ongoing community to experiment with how we co-create spaces of deep connection. And I have come back to do what I could not do before - be my raw self, with you. 

 

I am beyond excited to be (finally) sharing Raw Movement (my actual baby). I am fantastically giddy to move with, share with, and invite folks committed to creating spaces of deep connection to gather via Raw Movement. This year we are piloting our first year of activities, culminating in monthly gatheriings and our Spring Open House. 

 

We are in need of administrative support and volunteers to bring Raw Movement (and our current cycle of space building, "3:33") to life this year. Help us birth this baby and create spaces of deep connection with us. Last year, we had the first year of Raw Movement’s Building Team setting up our foundational operations systems and this year we are inviting in “pilot” artists for a pilot year of our activities! We are preparing to “launch” our monthly gatherings, open house, and school for space design! If you are a lover of efficiency, systems-building, graphic/web/communications design, administrative support, event planning, event producing, outreach, fundraising, or organizing we are looking for folks who would like to join Raw Movement’s Building Team and be a part of making Raw Movement come to life in the upcoming year :) 

 

If interested, e-mail me at justina@rawmovement.org by January 25th so that we can set up an informal chat. Note: This Building Team is the administrative volunteer team that supports Raw Movement; a separate call is going out for those who would like to participate as a member of the pilot Collective for Space Design (Black women/femme artist-designers commune with each other, explore and research collective (movement) practices together, lead our gatherings, and contribute to The Building Team; The Building Team does move together, but there is less movement and movement research than the Collective, as it is focused on administration, outreach, and financial support. The Building Team is open to women/femmes).

 

Thank you for reading,

Justina

 

***

 

This year, join in to 

cycle 3:33,

as we build our space of deep connection.

 

 

3:33 is the current cycle of our space building, bringing Black women/femme and women/femme artists, designers, scholars, medicine workers, and scientists together (especially uplifting queer, neurodivergent, and disabled folks) to co-create a space of deep connection. We’ll use playful, recreational, or celebratory movement, art, and design to experiment with co-creating a space of deep connection, (individual) raw expression, and collective feeling. We’ll design an interactive performance-recreation-ritual-community space exploring our stories of grief, loss, death, conflict, suffering, transition, unknown post-2020 and grounding us in rituals of warrior-like strength, protection, belonging, divinity, and safety. We’ll design our interactive-performance-ritual-recreation space, while workshopping our interactive space with the public. With the public, we'll use playful, recreational, or celebratory movement, art, and design to experiment with co-creating a space of deep connection, (individual) raw expression, and collective feeling. Individuals are invited to be a part of 3:33 by joining The Collective for Space Design (Black women/femme/nonbinary folks), or The Building Team (women/femme/nonbinary folks).

 

For the full call for Building Team participants, click here.