This summer I will be producing and directing a short film which exhibits unique dance styles of bay area performers. I’m looking for individuals or crews who want to participate. The main criteria is that they be enthusiastic, skilled and identify somewhere along one of these groups: African-American, Asian-American, Native American or Latino. Sorry White folks!

The purpose of the film is to document those signifiers within our respective cultures that only come to the surface when the audience for our art is our culture, not the mainstream. Tell your friends, tell your fam, tell yourself to get involved! It’s going to be a lot of fun.

The film is called A Step All Our Own in reference to the following quote from Malcolm X’s speech on the founding of the OAAU.

Our artists we have artists who are geniuses; they don’t have to act the Stepin Fetchit role. But as long as they’re looking for white support instead of black support, they’ve got to act like the old white supporter wants them to. When you and I begin to support the black artists, then the black artists can play that black role. As long as the black artist has to sing and dance to please the white man, he’ll be a clown, he’ll be clowning, just another clown. But when he can sing and dance to please black men, he sings a different song and he dances a different step. When we get together, we’ve got a step all our own. We have a step that nobody can do but us, because we have a reason for doing it that nobody can understand but us.

email akilahart@gmail.com with any suggestions