Homemakin: how black women stage otherlives and werk out salvation through dance

by Ronya-Lee LaVaune Anderson, MDiv, MFA

chapter ONe: Circle of knowings

key terms

Black Sacred Triad: The collective, church, club, stage that make up a zone of theatrical world-making, discovery and affirmation

Homemakin: Black women’s werk through the moving body as an invitation that not only mitigates racism and oppression, but also fashions alternate ways of living and being that counter capitalist objectification. It is an act of healing in direct opposition to notions of Western time and place, status and class.

Movement Epistemology: Embodied knowledges that live in the present body, but are ever-evolving as the body in motion transmits past knowledge reanimated through space, time and relationship, produces movement informed by present knowledge and generates future motion.

Kinesonic Symbiosis: the mutually beneficial relationship between the DJ and dancers where sound is felt in and expressed through the bodies of the dancers and in turn their bodies in motion inform the sound choices the DJ makes, including vibe and direction

Main example

A close reading of the hush harbor scene of Toni Morrison’s Beloved featuring the character, Baby Suggs, holy.

key points

  1. Black sacred triad as a site of homemakin

  2. Marronage as instructive to homemakin

  3. Through lines in Black movement epistemologies: derision, play, the circle

  4. Kongo Cosmogram, the Ring Shout, Shoutin, the Cypher and Set De Flo as reflections of homemakin

  • Chapter 2 In Pursuit of Sanctuary

  • Chapter 3: Staging Witness

  • Chapter 4 Building Worlds and Bending Time on the Dance Floor

Footage from Malcolm X Park Drum Circle June 25, 2023

“Black people just feeling free to move and these people weren’t dancers […] but they’re dancing, enjoying themselves. For me and for other people it’s like ‘this is home’ this is familiar. I know this. It almost reminds me too like sometimes if you go to family functions or like barbecues or something like that.”

-Toyin Sogunro, July 9, 2021

Footage from Cap Fest August 30, 2025