NEW-phoric (i like these new blooms): a response by Keyierra Collins

Keyierra Collins responds to a prompt from PRJ2.0 presented in conjunction with the “Deconstructing Language: Liberationist Writing for Performance” workshop series during PRJ’s satellite residency in Summer 2021 with the National Center for Choreography at the University of Akron.

Keyierra Collins is layered three times in front of newspaper clippings and yellow carnations wearing a fuschia paper wrap, a matching headscarf, and floral patterned pants with a green base. In fuschia letters at the top right reads "NEW-phoric" — Image created by Keyierra Collins

“Come and sit with me-on the moon if you like”

Alleviate ya back

Ease your toes down into the rocks

Sit wide with me

Slumped shoulders from a full spirit like we dun’ churched all night

Lay hold of my hand

Discern my exhausted pleasure

“Then to the sun if you like”

Get hot and sweat fury with me

Tonight I tore up them space rings, didn't I?

Had the comets dancing around my ears…

…OH I pooched, in no rush to meet gravity again

“Take the stars and wear them if you like”

Ain’t no difference between what they got and we got

So full of combustion, we be shinin and burnin all over the place

Showing off God’s work, cascading all over the place

See, comprehend that I’m the prototype…

I got joy in my feet, and war in my walk

I wear glory in my smile and defiance on my skin

My shadow holds stories

An ancestral archive

I’m a wish and a dream

A made way out of no way

I got an ocean of courage swallowing up disillusions from false talk

See, I’m known as the prototype.

“And I go exponentially higher…come and witness if you like”

See me up here, I look good up here

Sittin on planets and shit

Flaunting this blue faaade and shit

I got the outer matter kissing my scalp as I give into recognizing me

Getting use to finding me up here

To watching me spirit float atop Mars

And there I go again, up-raising so high till former self

gamboled outmost my body

I saw who she was

Where she was

Furthermore…how she got there

The tumbling residue from her being plunged my tears through matter

I gave her my gratitude for getting me up here

For permission to fall as many times as needed

For baring her skin leaving nothing but her smoldering glow to be seen

Imprint me Oh Lord to never spill her memory

As I float beyond this galaxy, keep the base of her garms settled in my hand

“When you’re ready…come find me and rest here if you like”

“Feel free to stay awhile if you like”

I’ll be here, still giving them the business

Floating higher, still unearthing these changing bones

Cuz this is one of many

More effectuating nights to come

More grace, more raised hands, and thrown heads to findings

we have yet to encounter

More accolades to wear, more salt to give the world

But if you come…be ready

Cuz ain’t no finishing me here

Ain't no knocking me off my post

You should try to keep up if you can

[Writer’s Note: This series is based on my latest work in-development, How I found my feet again which is an explorative journey of me rediscovering myself as a movement artist. I use process, dance/movement, writing, and routines as tools for discovery. My NOW body, values, and current stage in life inform who I am now, in this moment in time as a movement artist. I utilized the tools offered by Brianna Alexis Heath during her “Deconstructing Language” workshop.]

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Keyierra Collins is an international dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in Chicago. In 2020 she was awarded the 3Arts/ Walder Foundation Awardee grant. As a dance artist Collins worked with artists like educator, international performer, and choreographer Onye Ozuzu as well as France-based Rwandan artist Dorothee Munyaneza. She also has had the pleasure of working with many Chicago based artists like Paige Cunningham, Emily Stein, Anna Martine Whitehead, and Sonita Surratt to name a few. Collins’ work explores how dance and movement can be used to heal trauma, particularly the collective and individual trauma experienced by people of the African diaspora. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2016 with a BA Dance.There she studied various dance forms, including West African, modern, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and improvisation. Having toured and worked with artists in Haiti and Nigeria, Collins wants to continue to travel and collaborate with artists around the world.

You can find Brianna Alexis Heath’s “Deconstructing Language” workshop here.