Listen. We would not have this community, this music, this dance without black lives.
In this current time, our dance community must unite towards what is righteous. Being Black in America can mean the death sentence at the hands of a militarized police force, which is built upon structures designed to imprison people and to make a profit doing it.
Much of our music directly references these hardships, and they bear influence on all sub-genres of Blues Music. Its roots dig back to “field hollers” from enslaved Africans, and before that the music of West Africa.
The dance forms that followed developed regionally at African American establishments, juke joints, ballrooms, and wherever the music was found. As members and organizers of our blues dance community, we owe our expression of this art form to the black community that started it. We stand with our black community members against systematic racism and police violence.
Without black lives, we have nothing.
The Capital Blues committee will be saying more about this for as long as we continue to exist as an organization. We regret not having been more vocal about these issues on our web site and public communications. We need to contribute more to the conversation as well as help build paths towards solutions. While we have always made concerted efforts to hire black musicians, deejays, and instructors as well as broach tough issues like these at our beginner lessons, we haven’t done near enough.
Stay tuned as this is just a new beginning. Capital Blues may be closed for a long time due to COVID19, but must always and forever assert the value of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
See our website at capitalblues.org for links to charities to donate to if you feel so inclined. And stay tuned for more announcements about what we’ll be doing to lend support to these efforts in the near future.
