From Shamell Bell, Co-Founder, Black Infinity Complex, Organizer, Black Lives Matter- Los Angeles, and PhD student, Culture and Performance- UCLA.
The first scenes of this documentary feature well-known Krump dancer, Krucial “The Liberator,” paying tribute to Trayvon Martin and dancing to liberate herself from the haunting effects of the history of state-stanctioned violence. This was shot nearly a year before the second half of the video in response to the release of Ezell Ford’s autosopy report.
Immediately following the release of Ezell Ford’s autopsy report on Dec 29, 2015 that revealed a muzzle imprint in his back at close range, for 18 days, a group of Black and Brown activists, community members and White allies took up space in front of the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters. Together they slept in 30-degree weather, some of the coldest weather Los Angeles has seen in its history.
In the late-afternoon, after kids got out of school and parents that occupied in shifts got off work, kick-balls and soccer balls were kicked around, and occupiers enlivened their morale and the space with jump rope competitions. Instead of simply occupying LAPD in protest of the death of unarmed black bodies, we brought the space to life with physical activities and dance to assert that “Living is Resisting”. Well-known street dancer Day Day and I taught dance classes to protesters, community members, and whoever walked by. We called this activity, “Street Dance Activism.”
Hear Bell speak about organizing, dance and community power in this interview: http://fsrn.org/2015/03/black-lives-matter-activists-move-forward-while-looking-back/
