As I reflect on my life changing journey to Rwanda with Gibney Dance, it becomes more clear to me than ever that ART IS the weapon. It is not supplementary. It is not extra curricular. It is. It’s the SOURCE. This pilgrimage has reminded me not only of the power art has to transcend circumstance, but of it’s necessity in our world if we hope to function in a healthy way.

No matter who or where, we were born singing, letting our voice ring out into the world for the very first time. Our first movements were an interpretive dance, twisting and turning our limbs, expressing how we felt in our earliest moments of personhood. Before we could crawl or walk or run, we beat our hands and feet on the ground beneath us or the walls around us and made music that engulfed whichever space we inhabited. Art is the oldest of languages… And it’s universal.

The Batwa community in Rwanda, “Those who have been left behind by history” have so little in material values… but they have not lost their song, their dance, or their drum. That is priceless. It is their ART that makes them rich. It’s their ART that creates community… because Art is communal… because Art is about sharing, about giving even when you have nothing. That’s a valuable lesson to learn.

Art (re)connects us to something deep within the very cores of our being. It (re)connects us to a profound truth that transcends title, class, race, or nationality. These “labels” are merely social constructs that can help to build a sense of identity in a divided world, but ultimately mean absolutely nothing. It’s the RHYTHM that binds us. That’s why I love dance so much.

That down beat connects us all to the source. Grounding us. Pulling us like a magnet back to one another over and over again since the beginning of time. Without it we are lost… Separate, Divided, Alone. Without it, we forget who we are and from where we come.

Yes, Rhythm is that powerful.

It’s gravity. A constant, invisible force pulling us back to ourselves. And much like gravity, without it we would float off with nothing to bring us back.

This is why the role of Art in our world is so crucial, so vital. Because it is the truest and purest form of ourselves. It’s the one thing we all share. And as the world teaches us daily of all the ways in which we are different, we have this one thing, this gift, that like the sun shinning reminds us all that we live under the same bright sky. It reminds us that at the CORE, we are the same.

We are all LOVE.

And that is worth fighting for… because our very humanity is at stake.

Yes, it is that deep.

I am positive that if we sang together a little more… Danced together a little more… that the world would be a much kinder, more inclusive place.

So as we march boldly into this new year, I encourage each of us in 2017 and beyond to (re)connect to the artist inside us. Feed the beast. And as it grows allow your empathy to grow with it. Feed the beast. And as it grows allow yourself to see yourself in the struggle of others. Feed the beast. And as it grows allow yourself to be more fully you. Bright. Beautiful. LOVE-ly.

I vow here and now to fight, for my humanity and for yours, will you join me?