How do we make the abolition of oppression a series of joyful events?
Photo by Bryson Rand
(they/them)
j. bouey is a 2023 Bessie Award Outstanding Performer recipient and is the founder of The Dance Union Podcast. They have served on the DanceNYC Taskforce and the Board of DanceUSA and initiated the NYC Dancers COVID-19 Relief Fund and The Dance Union Town Hall For Collective Action to support the dance community. j. is a 2026 BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) and CUNY Dance Initiative Artist in Residency. j. was a 2024 ImPulsTanz | 8:tension Artist-in-Residence, a 2022/2023 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, a 2021/2022 Jerome Fellow, a 2023 STooPS Artist, a Gibney 2021 Spotlight Artist, an Artist-In-Residence at Center for Performance Research, a 2021 Bogliasco Fellow, a 2019 Queer Art Mentorship Fellow, 2018 Movement Research Van Lier Fellow, 2018 Artist-in-Residence at the Dance and Performance Institute of Trinidad and Tobago, a 2018 Dancing While Black Fellow and a 2017 Chez Bushwick Artist-in-Residence. j. has presented their original work at JACK, Odeon Theater, Madura Studios, New York Live Arts, Judson Church and many other theaters and locations around the world. They are currently the Assistant Director, Lighting Director, and Research Assistant for Flow State, under the direction of Professor LaTasha Barnes. They perform with nia love’s UNDERcurrents and have formerly performed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, The Fabulous Waack Dancers, Germaul Barnes’ Viewsic Dance, Maria Bauman’s MB Dance, Dante Brown, Antonio Brown Dance, Christal Brown’s INspirit Dance, Scorpius Dance Theater, EPIK Dance Company. and apprenticed with Elisa Monte Dance, under the artistic direction of Tiffany Rea-Fisher.
“Liberation means you don't have to
be silenced.”
― Toni Morrison.
Photo by: Bryson Rand
I am determined to manifest the dreams dreamt in my youth, and I am assuming this responsibility because these dreams sustained me when the sun didn’t shine, or shone too brightly to see.
At the end of the day and the beginning of the next, I am a griot. I receive and share stories through dance projects to support the liberation of our global community.
I use astrology (the observation of the stars and planets of our lives) in a myriad of ways to support us, as many griots have done before me.
I pray we all experience liberation on a healthy planet. If not us, then the next generations.