Dear Bed Stuy:
The Arts in NYC are dying...
My
name is Dwana Adiaha Smallwood. I was a premier dancer with the Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater from 1995 - 2007. I’ve been on the cover of
Dance Magazine three times. I’ve been featured in Essence Magazine and I
have been photographed by Annie Leibowitz for Vogue Magazine. I was
also featured and danced on The Oprah Show.
I
took everything I learned over my many years as a professional and
created a dance program in South Africa at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership
Academy for Girls. The program was designed for girls who needed
validation and opportunities to harness the power within, so they too
could exceed the expectations many have of black girls around the world.
With dance, I was able to create a sacred space for them; that same
space that saved me from the noise of the world to help me reach my
goals.
I
yearned to continue that work and to create a space for the community
that saved me but almost swallowed me whole. For Bedford-Stuyvesant
(still one of the most underserved communities in Brooklyn), I wanted
so desperately to be the answer to the prayer I often heard: “I wish I had a place to grow and to feel like I can be anything, do anything.”
So
in 2013, I founded and opened the Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts
Center in Bed Stuy Brooklyn, a state of the art facility which is a
place for artistic exchange that serves to empower and mold elite
dancers and artists to develop, grow and compete on the world’s stage.
Today I am writing to let you know that due to the COVID - 19 pandemic,
in about four months, we will have to shut our doors….
I
worked hard to create the space politicians said they needed, parents
said they wanted, and children said they had to have. I could only
imagine how many more of my community members would have had better
options had they had a center like mine, to help guide them and keep
them safe and provide validation to their lives. It wasn't easy to
build. I almost closed before we opened. Each year since, I’ve struggled
to keep the doors open and continued to offer opportunities to children
and the community to thrive, but COVID-19 has hit us hard like so many
other small arts institutions, and what I so dreaded, may actually be a
reality. All that I have worked for may not survive.
I
was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and have lived here my
entire life. When I think about my upbringing, I think I had a childhood
no different than anyone else in Bed Stuy. I had a single struggling
mother mostly -- we were fatherless mostly -- and I was Black always.
Somehow,
through struggle, prayers, tears, hard work, the Creator, and the
collective work of the community I was able to live my dream and travel
the world. To most elite athletes, we would consider this to be a huge
accomplishment; to make it out of millions dancing and training and
auditioning to become one of only two elite dancers chosen that year. I
was that girl; that black, bald, skinny, struggling girl who had made it
past the expectations placed on all little dark-skinned black girls by
the world.
The
Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center has been closed since March.
Due to NYC’s guidelines, we have not been allowed to open our doors even
to rent out space. We will close for good if we don’t raise money NOW. I
always wondered how something that means so much to so many and
requires so little from each of us, will be allowed to die.
It would be among the greatest failures of our community if we close.
The arts have
always been the answer when the healing of a nation is needed. If
and/or when this pandemic is over, the arts will be needed more than
ever to replenish, refresh and rejuvenate our communities, our children,
and their families.
The
intention of this letter is not to ask for money (although that would
be helpful and graciously accepted). I’m asking that you help me to sound the alarm.
I have reached out to media outlets, government officials and others
that I had hoped could help and some have, but in the world of fast news
cycles, this message has been lost; not just for my organization but
for many others like mine.
Please
pass this onto ANYONE you know or think can help get this message out
to the media (social, news, arts, entertainment...whatever). Any help
you can offer will be appreciated.
The collective healing of our nation is going to need the ARTS. Dance is My Oxygen!
Sincerely,
Dwana A. Smallwood
Dwana Smallwood Performing Arts Center, Inc.
dwanasmallwoodpac.org
(718) 443 - 9800
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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve, at Gibney, as Senior Director of Artist Development and Curation and Editorial Director. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.
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