- Hello everybody, I'm Satori Shakoor.

Welcome to "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove" where Detroit's talented artists take the stage and share insights into their performances.

This episode is curated by the Michigan Learning Channel.

We'll see talented youth from InsideOut, Literary Arts and the Detroit School of Arts.

Get ready for some enlightening performances from our young people on "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove".

- [Announcer] Funding for "Detroit Performs" is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, the Kresge Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(vibrant upbeat music) - Hey everybody.

It's my pleasure to be sitting here with Angela Brown, producer for the Michigan Learning Channel.

Hi Angela.

- Hi, thank you for having me.

- So tell us a little bit about the Michigan Learning Channel.

- Yes, so the Michigan Learning Channel is a statewide partnership between all of the PBS stations in Michigan.

So it's managed by Detroit Public Television but we're leveraging our relationships and partnerships with all of the public media stations to create learning content and enrichment content for students pre-K through 12th grade.

And so, in my role as producer I've been fortunate enough to help with programming that give youth an opportunity to express themselves through the arts.

And so, Michigan Learning Channel is not just about reading, writing, and arithmetic, it's also about the arts and really helping our students become well-rounded, intellectuals and learners.

- Okay, so it sounds like you are very inclusive of the ideas of the students as well in terms of what kind of programming you want to create.

- Oh, absolutely.

So, you know, one of our mantras is with students, for students and by students.

And so youth voice is so important.

The city is filled with talented people.

One of the things that we forget though is that that talent didn't come from nowhere.

It was developed, it was enriched, it was kind of teased out by someone.

And there's no other better example I could think of as DSA, Detroit School of the Arts.

Those students are going to school every day.

They're learning their science they're learning math, they're learning reading.

They're also really, really, really talented performers.

And the teachers and the administrators there do so much to develop their talent and we are able to feature their work.

And so that's been really gratifying.

Same with InsideOut.

We produced a poetry special last year and Justin Rogers who is a coordinator for InsideOut, he was actually the host of that special.

And through our relationship and building our relationship with them, we were exposed to these very talented young poets.

And it's just been so gratifying.

So always youth first.

- Who did you bring from the Detroit School of Arts to perform for us today?

- So today we have the Detroit School of Arts Dance Ensemble and they're performing two pieces.

One is called "Struggle" and the other is called "Empowerment".

- Who do we have performing from InsideOut?

- So from InsideOut, we have two amazing poets.

The first is Raijuan and the second is Samer.

- Where can people find the Michigan Learning Channel?

- So if you are in southeastern Michigan, you can find it on air, we're 56.5.

If you're out of our viewing area, you can also access it through our website.

We also have everything online.

So everything that's broadcast on television is also being live streamed.

And if you're watching this and you're a performer or you have access to young people, please visit our website, MichiganLearning.org/YouthVoice.

We have a number of opportunities for young people to connect with us and learn with us.

And so, we're happy to have them.

- Thank you Angela Brown.

- Thank you.

- Now we're headed to the stage to see Raijuan.

- That young man is my brother.

That lady's my sister.

And we're beautiful, made in God's image.

Yeah, and we could do anything if our heart's in it.

And if we believe, I look around the school like we're the ones that bought this dream to be along with Dr. King's, Maya's, Harriet's and Medgar Evers, Dreamworks.

They sit above the clouds, but you can check the credits written in stone immortalized in our thoughts, which I've come to know, is conveying what's inside of our hearts.

But you be careful with your dreams, some will use it as leverage.

It's all business, every day people are viewed as investments.

I'm always thinking about what I can let go from the checklist.

I'm just trying to raise the bar.

Standing 10 toes, like a deadlift.

Your dream could be someone's nightmare.

You're going for the pressure.

Some rooms you walk in looking for help and won't get accepted.

We in the country constantly throwing a attacks on our people and throwing a tax on our people like they didn't snatch up our people.

Providing a minimum and say they're giving back to our people.

It's simple.

Look at the country before and after our people.

Not perfect, but this is real.

I'm fine if it's my last poem.

Whether your dream is brand new or it's one that's been passed on.

Leaders from the past can vouch most change takes mad long.

What do all of those leaders have in common?

They held on.

- Welcome back, everybody from that profound performance that Raijuan did on stage.

And we are here with Raijuan.

I'm so excited to talk to you.

- Hello, excited to talk to you too.

- What poem style did you perform?

- So I didn't name this poem and I did that on purpose because when I name poems, it starts to feel unnatural.

And so I went into this knowing that I was gonna perform it.

So I didn't want want to name it, I just wanted to remember the words.

If I name it I might end up remembering the name of the poem, not the poem itself.

- Okay.

- As much, so, I just try to have the words be the only thing that I remember.

So it'll just seem natural.

- And so what inspired those words from you?

- It was kind of, I've been thinking about, I've been trying to put those words into one poem for a long time because you know, I come to school and I walk down the hallways, I walk past students.

I'm in classes with all of these different people and I see a lot of potential.

I don't believe that anyone in my school doesn't have the ability to be the best, the absolute best at whatever they do.

So I wanted my poem to be about not letting go of your dreams no matter who you are.

Because I can't imagine a world where, you know, some of our favorite people, like my favorite artist, Kendrick Lamar, I tell my mom all the time, like, I'm so glad he didn't give up.

You know, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama.

Our black women, you know, Harriet, whoever it may be.

And then possibly the most famous dream of all Martin Luther King.

I can't imagine a world where he didn't give up on his dream.

So, yeah, that's what I wanted my poem to be about.

- Just tell me like a phrase that of the poem that you wanted to get that you wanted to capture.

- I said, "The leaders from the past can vouch most change takes mad long, but what do all of those leaders have in common?

They held on."

So, that to me is probably the best and most important part of the poem because it just makes you think about all of the leaders who, if they hadn't held onto their dream the world would be totally different place today.

- What has your experience been with InsideOut?

- My experience with InsideOut has been exceptional because for one, I get to meet people that I don't usually meet.

Even people in my school, because I'm a senior.

So, I mean, we don't see the like freshman's often but you just meet people and then you see, you just see a part of them that maybe they don't show in a regular school day, which is understandable but I just like to see that.

- Well, it has been an honor and a joy to speak with you, Raijuan.

- It's been an honor and joy to be here.

- And now we're going back to the stage to see another powerful performance.

- My mother asks me to step outside and stare at the moon.

Together, we let it sit in our pupils and wash our irises.

She says, "Look at the eyes I've given you.

You can only see your eyes and me and the moon."

My mother tells me her heart saw me before her eyes so that I will always find her heartbeat when my eyes betray me and I am lost.

My grandmother hasn't seen the Mediterranean since 1948.

She says she used to sit on the beach with an orange and count the seas waves.

She swallowed the orange seeds.

Her house was swallowed by the sea.

An attempt at preservation.

How can you call these lakes great if you can count their waves?

My Instagram feed runs through a massacre in Janine and greets my friend at a bar in Berlin.

Takes a shot or two of vodka.

For how long will I continue to wear black?

Breath before the confines of a line too closely held.

Breathe before, don't leave room between your prayers, room for the devil and gunfire.

My grandmother lunges off the Mar Saba monastery into the Jordan River, walks from the floor of the Mediterranean to go pray alongside her husband in Alba Mosque.

I look up Orthodox churches near me.

So maybe I'll wind up in Sodom.

My cousins in Jerusalem want to spray paint Golgotha, a tear beneath the skull's eye.

God is lachrymose at your horrors beneath it.

God is horrified and has hidden in Sodom.

My God, this is the first poem I haven't written half in Arabic.

I think home is where my books are.

My mother taught me to love God first.

This is why I love her, than her, than her, than God.

I once asked her to peel for me a pomegranate.

She said, "Was my belly not enough pomegranate?"

These days I peel pomegranates for her.

My mother does not wear her gold.

She left it in homeland.

Gold promises, homeland gold promises theft or return.

My mother has sworn return.

Her key is golden.

My grandmother tells us to throw her body so deep into the sea that even gold will rust.

My mother reminds her, the only seas here are in our eyes.

My grandmother tells us to swallow her with them.

- Welcome back everybody.

We're coming back from the stage from a very mellow and moving performance by Samer.

Hi Samer.

- Hi.

- And so what did we hear today?

- The poem was called "Requiem for a Memory of a Mediterranean Moon".

It's a poem of sort of lament, but also like an ode to my mother and my grandmother and what they both represent as Palestinian women who come from Palestine.

- [Satori] What do you call a Requiem?

- [Samer] It is a lament, it's a song that laments.

But in this poem, particularly in the context that I've given it, it celebrates but it laments the fact that we've been taken the right of return.

We've been, it's been taken from us.

Being Palestinian means coming from somewhere where we're repeatedly oppressed and silenced.

And so beyond speaking as a Palestinian and the significance that it symbolizes, there's a lot going on with the Zionist regime in Palestine.

And so that silences Palestinians and kills them daily.

So, though it's a very stern and difficult topic, I think it's important to be the center of a lot of art and literature and the voice of many and promoting the Palestinian voice.

- Is it work that you enjoy doing or work that you are feel dutiful and called to do?

- I think it's both.

I think with the duty comes the joy and vice versa, with the joy comes the duty.

But writing has been sacred to me for as long as I can remember and growing up and becoming more cognizant of my own identity as a Palestinian, what it means and, you know, in today's world with so much going on, of course, I think it's immensely significant that the both come to work together.

And so, it's joyful for me to act on the duty and to promote the cause.

- Do you have plans that you're continue to do the work that you're doing?

And it's important work.

- [Samer] I do.

There are planned events and readings and you know, whatever it may be.

But I think my largest commitment is life is the Palestinian cause for liberation.

And so, be it with education in the future that I plan to pursue or my writing as it will go on wherever it may take me.

- It was a pleasure speaking to you.

Thank you for your activism.

- Thank you for having me.

- And your work.

- And now we're going to the stage to see the Detroit School of Arts perform at "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove".

(upbeat music begins) ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now (upbeat funk music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Get down, get down with the movement ♪ ♪ Get down, get down with the movement ♪ ♪ It's like sound drop for all my struggle people ♪ ♪ Rebel music, struggle sound ♪ Shake it like was the next revolution ♪ ♪ Shake it like what is night for revolution ♪ ♪ Telling you get down is an act of revolution ♪ ♪ Telling you get down is an act of revolution ♪ ♪ Dem said struggle people will be haters ♪ ♪ 'Cause dem no worship dem paper ♪ ♪ On to fill up the hype of the media ♪ ♪ March all the way ♪ No materialistic thinking ♪ And I say my blessing and I make things ♪ ♪ True essence of a human being ♪ ♪ That's why ♪ March all the way ♪ I make that struggle music for the voice of the people ♪ ♪ Struggle sound is the weapon of the future ♪ ♪ 'Cause the bigger picture live in color ♪ ♪ March all the way ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Struggle music ♪ Struggle sound ♪ Struggle people ♪ Struggle now ♪ Struggle for some justice ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ Struggle now to heal the pain in the human family ♪ ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ I said struggle now for some justice ♪ ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ Struggle now to heal the pain of the human family ♪ ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ Struggle now to exist, struggle now for survivor ♪ ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ Struggle now 'til we fix it ♪ Struggle never final ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ All your people, all your nation ♪ ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ I am nation, fight depression ♪ ♪ I am people, I am nation ♪ Sha-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Da ♪ Struggle life no easy ♪ Only I am fit sharp, an iron ♪ Struggle life no easy ♪ You no run to at risk ♪ You no look face ♪ Struggle life no easy ♪ But only I am fit sharp, an iron ♪ ♪ Struggle life no easy ♪ When you no run to at risk ♪ And you no look face ♪ When you hear this on the sound pon de radio ♪ ♪ I listen to struggle music on the TV ♪ ♪ And I hear this on the sound pon de radio ♪ (mellow electronic music) (mellow electronic music continues) (mellow electronic music continues) (mellow electronic music continues) (mellow electronic music continues) (mellow electronic music continues) (mellow electronic music continues) - We are back from the stage from witnessing that beautiful performance by the Detroit School of Arts Dance Ensemble.

And it's my honor and excited privilege to be sitting here with Lauryn Simmons of Detroit School of Arts.

- Yes, thank you for having me.

- So tell us about the performance that we saw.

- The performance you saw, there was two adjudicated pieces.

One which was choreographed by Tislarm Bouie.

The other one was choreographed by Cameron.

I don't quite know her last name, in which both the main theme about them was women empowerment.

And so, the main focus our instructors really tried to own in on us was to make sure that we really realized that one it's bigger than us, the whole cause of the dance and the performance is bigger than us.

And then two, really own in on what our intention is with our movements.

So, like little things like focusing towards the audience, looking towards the camera.

Like having one sort of focus, so that you know, you're really interacting with the audience to give them a show.

- [Satori] You performed two pieces.

- [Lauryn] Yes.

- One was "Empowerment", the other one "Struggle".

- Yes.

- And what is the meaning of those pieces for you?

- In terms of "Struggle Music", it's very like downbeat house music.

And so, you know, it's a black people and to the black empowerment movement.

We strive from drums, you know, the African drumming beats and things like that.

So, for all of us being black women, we're all individually a downbeat inside of that music, inside of that sound.

And each of us has a struggle, you know, I think that's the interpretation of how I view struggle music.

And then in terms of Cameron's dance, women empowerment, like there are moments where it's like, you can lean on me, like in the beginning where it's like the line and then there are moments where it's like, like you just, you breathe into certain moments, you really get to experience it, experience that you're here in this moment.

And also you're a woman.

You just happen to experience what other people experience.

- How would you describe the ensemble, what it means to you and how you give meaning to it?

- The ensemble is quite literally my family.

It's, you know, a home away from home.

Especially for me since I'm an extrovert, you know, it's like you get to meet new people.

- [Satori] What is your experience when you're dancing?

- [Lauryn] From dancing I always try to capture like a moment that like can really like strike something.

Like for me in terms of like learning a piece, I work better instead of with counts.

I work better with analogies.

So like instead of thinking, you know just like pull your leg up to a high passe, think you're pulling up like a giraffe.

Your neck is long, sternum lifted.

Those like analogies, they help.

And I feel like that's the most enticing part about all of this is just like, the small little details that can become such a bigger picture, a bigger piece of the puzzle almost.

- I've enjoyed being with you today.

- I've enjoyed being here, thank you.

- I wish you every, every success.

- Thank you.

- And I thank you for joining us here at "Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove".

- [Announcer] Funding for "Detroit Performs" is provided by the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, the Kresge Foundation, the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, the National Endowment for the Arts.

And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(vibrant jazz music)