Black Diaspora: J. Bouey and Melanie Greene

Black Diaspora events are open to a Black- or Afro-Latinx-identified audience only.

We are returning back to love! This time, with a focus on radical self-love and its ability to dismantle internalized and external systems of oppression within our dance field and beyond.

About J. Bouey

Currently moving on pandemic timing and prioritizing rest. As a Dance Artist and Astrologer, J. is finding their way back to joy by imagining the abolition of systemic oppression through their current project, S A T U R N.

J. is the founder of The Dance Union Podcast, initiating the NYC Dancers COVID-19 Relief Fund and The Dance Union Town Hall For Collective Action to support the dance community through numerous world-changing events.

As a creator, J. is a recent 2021-2022 Jerome Fellow and is a 2022/2023 Movement Research Artist in Residence. J. Bouey was also recently a Gibney 2021 Spotlight Artist, Artist-In-Residence at CPR – Center for Performance Research, and 2021 Bogliasco Fellow. J. was also a 2018 Movement Research Van Lier Fellow, and 2018 Dancing While Black Fellow.

They were also a former dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and danced with Germaul Barnes’ Viewsic Dance, Maria Bauman’s MB Dance, Dante Brown, Christal Brown’s INspirit Dance, and apprenticed with Emerge 125 (formerly Elisa Monte Dance) under the artistic direction of Tiffany Rea-Fisher.

Determined to manifest the dreams dreamt in their youth, J. is assuming this responsibility because these dreams sustained them when the sun didn’t shine or shined too bright to see.

About Melanie Greene

Melanie Greene, 2017 Bessie Award Recipient for Outstanding Performance with Skeleton Architecture, is a dance artist, writer, organizer, and podcast host. She is no stranger to swirling on the edge of impossible, swimming in the sea of the minority. She has presented around the U.S and abroad, and has received generous support from MANCC, Marble House Project, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Movement Research, Mount Tremper, New York Live Arts, Gibney Dance, Actors Fund, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Dancing While Black Fellowship, Bogliasco Fellowship, and Brooklyn Arts Council. Greene has contributed written works to Dance Magazine and the Dance Enthusiast, and is currently a co-organizer of the Dance Union. As a southern belle Brooklynite rooting in the Big Easy, Greene holds a special place for buttery biscuits, country ham, and collard greens.

Stay tuned: www.methodsofperception.com

About Black Diaspora

Conceived by curator Eva Yaa Asantewaa during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter uprising, Black Diaspora launched its first activities in September 2020 as a Zoom-based peer support program serving up-and-coming, Black-identified dance and performance artists from various cultural backgrounds and aesthetic traditions.

With the support of Gibney, Black Diaspora has offered numerous peer group discussions, workshops led by notable guest artists, and conversations between artists. We celebrate the resourcefulness, accomplishments, and generous wisdom of Black creatives, educators, and activists.

Photo Courtesy of the artists