{"id":265,"date":"2019-09-08T22:15:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T02:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/?p=265"},"modified":"2019-09-08T22:15:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T02:15:42","slug":"of-strangers-in-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/2019\/09\/08\/of-strangers-in-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Strangers in White"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Gabriel event held on September 30<sup>th<\/sup>was a new learning experience for me as I had never participated in a march driven by a purpose or solid intent. When we first arrived at the burial ground we were greeted warmly by Free Egunfemi and she briefed us about our purpose for that day. That helped to clear some hazy ideas I had prior to the event. We were then passed on to Amina and Christine who taught us some moves for the march. Honestly, I really enjoyed those moves and how purposeful they were \u2013 it was a simple dance but interlaced with a message, a fight. At least that is what I thought it was. When the marching started, I was totally engrossed with the beats echoed by the djembes (and other percussions). It moved me. It moved everyone else present there. We moved together, I think we might have had the same purpose in mind. The energy emitted was contagious. We were mostly strangers but we smiled and flowed together. Not forgetting that we smothered parts of our body with fragrant water which was meant to cleanse ourselves and protect us from getting \u201cmoved\u201d by the spirits at the burial ground. This whole experience was super rich for me.<\/p>\n<p>As we got on the highway shoulder, it came to my realisation that \u201cwhoa this could be dangerous!\u201d. Being a virgin at any activism-related events (at that time), I was for one moment, scared for my life and everyone who was there with me. There were a few cars that slowed down to observe us and I was worried that our march might have upset someone. Coming from a country where freedom of speech is unpopular (and also frowned upon), I was genuinely surprised at where I was that evening; with a group of people in white, marching on one of Richmond\u2019s busiest highways.<\/p>\n<p>What I learned from this experience was empathising with others\u2019 struggles\/fights and knowing that any forms support from outsiders is welcomed and appreciated. I\u2019ve learned back home how dance\/movements can be a powerful instrument to move people when armed with intention and purpose, but I had never seen how powerful it was like during the evening of the Gabriel event.<\/p>\n<p>After that night, I was wondering how would the rest of the event fall together on October 10<sup>th<\/sup>? What is more to our role as UR and VCU\u2019s students?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Gabriel event held on September 30thwas a new learning experience for me as I had never participated in a march driven by a purpose or solid intent. When we first arrived at the burial ground we were greeted warmly by Free Egunfemi and she briefed us about our purpose for that day. That helped [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4564,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102490],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-week-two"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4564"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/danceandcommemorativejustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}