It’s Graduation Time
Grateful to be part of the Class of 2026!
In 24 hours, I will be hooded and dancing across the stage and receiving a Master’s of Fine Arts degree! I am so excited to share the culmination of this journey!
All photos by Michelle Sanchez
ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Convocation Live
Wednesday, May 13th at 9am PST / 12pm EST
The Call to Adventure
Somewhere along the journey of my life, I dropped a few things that are invaluable to me. My joy, my confidence, and my wondrous curiosity were among the things I could name, but I knew there were many more things scattered around the Phoenix Valley I had dropped or misplaced. When the opportunity to go back and get them was presented to me, I answered the call and flew back to gather all of my stuff.
I was not checking for graduate school when the decision to enroll was laid out before me. I was in the middle of creative research, healing my body and mind, and looking for a teacher I could study with. The call to adventure was hearing “Jazz” whispered in my spiritual ear while meditating in front of the altar for my Ancestors during the COVID-19 lockdown. After being introduced to Waacking, Punking, and House, I began forming theories about their connection to Jazz that were more deeply explored, embodied, and presented by LaTasha Barnes. My friend Quilan Arnold mentioned that I should go to the Joyce Theater and experience LaTasha Barnes Presents The Jazz Continuum. I did not hesitate to go see the show, and it changed me so profoundly. What followed was the response to the call that I could not have asked or searched for.
After the show, I went to the lobby to express my gratitude and awe to all of the artists involved. There was a large group photo of Jazz artists who went to see the show being organized that I was happy to witness. Then, LaTasha made eye contact with me and waved me over to join the photo. I haven’t seen the photo, but I am sure I was trying to make my presence as humble as possible because who was I to be included among this collective of great artists?! Apparently, LaTasha saw more in my that I would later grow to see. After sharing my awe, gratitude, and amazement with LaTasha, I skipped home with a wealth of inspiration. A few days later, I got on my Instagram story and just exposed my excitement and urged my followers to see The Jazz Continuum. Soon after, LaTasha messaged me and said we should set up a time to meet. I. was. ecstatic.
October 2022
We scheduled a 30-minute meeting and spoke on Zoom for four hours! I learned that LaTasha was a faculty member at Arizona State University in the Dance Department, where I received my BFA in 2014. I learned that her neuroscience and dance research was aligned with creative research about liberation, and how her experience as a veteran, her healing journey, her relationship with her family, and her commitment to the culture undergirds her research. With every passing statement that revealed our alignment with each other, I started to hear the next call from my ancestors. It was time to enroll in graduate school at ASU to study with LaTasha. While this was the catalyst, the sense of timing in my life could not have been more profoundly aligned.
The Why, Sankofa.
I was in the middle of healing my body and my mind as a primary focus. The beautiful impact of The Dance Union Podcast’s 2020 Town Hall to Dismantle White Supremacy in Dance thrust me into an experience of fame that I felt haunted by. I was unable to enjoy it for many reasons that were all rooted in my experiences living and growing up in the Phoenix Metropolitan area. Therapy helped me reveal that I had deeply associated the experiences of fame with great emotional and psychological pain. Now, I feel uncomfortable using the word “fame” or “famous” to describe my experiences because it’s not like I’m Michael Jackson or Prince and can’t experience civilian life or something. But, I say it because (1) it’s a truth of my life that has been reflected back to me by family and friends whose opinions of me matter, and (2) it adds context to the mental health journey I was on that led me to graduate school.
What I loved about the opportunity of enrolling in graduate school at ASU to study with LaTasha was that I could return home to dance with the demons that plagued my mind and stole my joy in the environment in which I first encountered them. And, I would be doing so while living with my brothers Majee and Najee (who I could trust would keep me humble and grounded while loving me for me). I could not pass up on this one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go back and retrieve all that I dropped or misplaced. Through healing in the most fertile, creative, and loving environment that I could trust, I was able to get my joy, confidence, and wondrous curiosity back.
What I am talking about here is the embodiment of Sankofa, a Twi expression that means “Go back and get it!”, and the Adinkra symbol created by the Akan people of Ghana, which depicts a mythical bird looking backward while holding an egg in its beak. I am wearing a medallion in this photo with Sankofa symbol in all of these photos. The proverb best encapsulates the spiritual journey of returning to my alma mater and the Phoenix Valley. The proverb, roughly translated, says it is not taboo to go back and get something after you have forgotten it. I was first introduced to Sankofa in the summer of 2010 when I participated in ASU’s Sankofa summer program before starting my first year of college. I spent a week on campus with incoming Black freshmen, some from my high school and some who will become lifelong friends. It’s just wild how Sankofa literally brought me back to ASU.
The challenges of graduate school helped me grow into the person I am so proud of being today. Through the love and guidance of my friends, family, teachers, and community, I have healed many traumas and integrated my shadow through dance. And, I have the research to prove it!
With this journey soon to be in the past and a new journey revealing itself, I am excited to share what I’ve learned as I return to the field with a profound sense of clarity and direction.
So Much to Celebrate!
While I am grateful for this opportunity to graduate, I am relatively an unceremonious person. Up until now, I have felt like a fish in the desert when attending celebratory events like award shows or graduations, especially when I am to be honored. But, that’s all changing now. Thanks to my friend Michelle Sanchez, who took these graduation photos and spent a beautiful morning with me in deep conversation, I am transmuting all that has alienated me from celebrating myself into a larger celebration of the moment that I get to participate in.
What I love most about participating in this graduation season is celebrating with everyone who sees themselves in me, my image, my art, and my successes. I am a Black queer person assigned male at birth who has lived with chronic migraines, depression, anxiety, suicidality, and survived homelessness, poverty, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, who will be dancing across the stage with a Master’s of Fine Arts in Dance (Interdisciplinary Digital Media and Performance)! I am my Ancestor’s wildest dreams and a Living Ancestor with even wilder dreams! And, I am grateful to be here.
With love, care, and so much gratitude,
-j.