DAY FIVE

Tekrema Cultural Center in the lower 9^th ward is where we will perform site specifically, and gathered for most of day, observing a persistent rainstorm, which ignited our imaginations. This building was purchased 2 months before Katrina, and was entirely immersed in water, and its disrepair is still evident. One hopes Urban Bush Women bringing folks to see this as one of three sites, inspires someone to help assist them in making it the space its owner, Mama Greer, envisioned. We cross pollinated some ideas in various spaces, and for most of the day, we intersected song (I have always wanted to be harmonizing in a singing group) with dance and spoken word. I went along with the visual artists to pick up supplies at Walmart before coming home for an early night of it. The day had started with the conditioning class that has almost become a meditation,( it moves so thankfully slow) and a community dance party, showing the overlap of African idioms that come forth from the young people in various areas reflecting the rage of whatever era--times of war, discontent, and civil rights movements. We also got the local flavor, with some history of Congo Square, as well as those moves we witnessed in the “Second Line” ----movement forms that are revisited, or were “brought by rivers” to our brothers and sisters, yearning to be free.