Red Clay Dance Company, Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar

About the Performance

In this new work, Red Clay Dance Company’s Founding Artistic Director and CEO Vershawn Sanders-Ward offers a creative response to Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar through dance and storytelling, honoring this living altar to missing and murdered Black girls and women. Featuring the award-winning ensemble of Red Clay Dance Company alongside a community cast of young dancers from Black Girls Dance, and new music by Jamila Woods, this immersive, evening-length choreographic work serves as a sanctuary for the stories of the women and girls featured on the altar—blending dance, song, digital media, and built environment to create a profound and resonant experience.

The original Blackgirlhood Altar, assembled by A Long Walk Home artists Scheherazade Tillet and Robert Narcisco, is a mixed-media, object-based installation initially created to transform public spaces from trauma sites to collective remembering and power. The living altar honors eight Black women and girls: Rekia Boyd, Latasha Harlins, Ma’Khia Bryant, “Hope,” “Harmony,” Marcie Gerald, Lyniah Bell, and Breonna Taylor.