B09 Columbia, North Carolina USA 1801

They “danced to possess themselves again in the spirit of their ancestors, to possess again their memories, to possess again their communities. They danced to resist their reduction to the status of commodities. In other words, they danced — and they still dance — to possess again a heritage that some people would rather see buried alive.”

— Joseph Roach, Cities of the Dead: Circum-Atlantic Performance, 1996