Lenora Lee Dance presents World Premiere of 'In the Movement'

8pm Thursday through Saturday, September 1-10; and 2pm on Sunday, September 4 and 11

Lenora Lee Dance, Asian Improv aRts, and API Cultural Center present Lenora Lee Dance's world premiere of "In the Movement," an explosive multimedia dance piece focusing on the separation of families and mass detention of immigrants as forms of incarceration. It serves as a meditation on reconciliation and restorative justice, speaking to the power of individuals and communities to transcend.

Through dance, sound and narrative, "In the Movement" highlights the stories and experiences of individuals subjected to incarceration, ICE detention and deportation as told through recorded interviews. This new work illustrates the systematic cycle of oppression that keeps many immigrants either incarcerated, detained or cycling between the two.

One of those interviewed is Community Advocate for Asian Prisoner Support Committee (APSC) and a former juvenile lifer Borey "Peejay" Ai, who recounts:
"ICE detention is worse than prison. It's a very inhumane place.... I couldn't believe a system in America could treat people that way, regardless of your circumstances, your background.... It was heartbreaking."

In addition to Ai, Artistic Director Lenora Lee interviewed advocates working with: 67 Suenos, an Oakland-based youth organizing program with political education, artivism, and trauma-healing; Cindy Liou, the daughter of Chinese-Taiwanese immigrants,, attorney and immigrants' rights advocate; Jessica S. Yamane, co-director at Pangea Legal Services, directly supporting impacted community members who are developing alternatives to deportation and detention; advocate, artist, counselor and organizer Enrique Cristobal Meneses who was born in Mexico City, Mexico; and Melanie Kim, a State Policy Director at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office and a leader in ICE out of California.

$20-$50.