by Nathalie Jolivert, Communications and Outreach Coordinator
For her project as a Lakou NOU artist-in-residence, Veroneque Ignace, dancer and public health worker, reached out to youth at Erasmus High School in Flatbush and engaged them in discussions designed to help them express their feelings about violence experienced in their communities. Veroneque worked with 5 students over the course of two months, which resulted in the final presentation on Saturday November 12, at Brooklyn Fête in East Flatbush, incorporating dance, spoken word, live music and video.
Veroneque’s project “#Trending” seeks to to provide creative mechanisms to those who experience trauma due to violence in their neighborhoods. The title of her project shines light on the growing numbers of deaths in the black community as they get reported via the media. Veroneque’s long-term project kicked off with this first presentation and will essentially continue to provide creative tools to her students and her clients in their healing process. With this first presentation at Brooklyn Fête, Veroneque reaches out to a young population that the US must remember as the future of this country. Quite appropriately, in a solo within the dance performance, one of her senior dancers from Kriyòl Dance Collective performed with a simple black hoodie as homage to Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African-American high-school student who was shot by a police officer in 2012 and whose tragic death became an important marker of police brutality in the US.
See below a video clip of Veroneque’s performance:
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