Amai Myrna C. Munchus

Amai will create a multi-disciplinary performance piece that combines her personal story of a spiritual pilgrimage to Africa, along with the writings and performances of ten area youths. The youth’s sections of the piece will based on their ideas of what it means to be African American. Through the teaching and sharing of history and heritage, African and African American dance styles, the development of movement vocabulary, journal and script writing, and the documentation of the process, she hopes to dispel myths about what it means to be African American. Amai aims to create a space for both the participants and the audience to think about the painful practice of internalized racism, to confront this condition, and think about the ways it impacts the choices people make. Through exploring self-esteem, self-worth, respect, and the important historical and cultural legacy of people of the African diaspora, she hopes that the youth and audience can each find empowerment.