Epilogue

Abstract

“Fulcrum—the point or support on which a lever pivots; an agent through which vital powers are exercised.” This was the definition I used in the Prologue to describe, in a nutshell, the scope and extent of Joan Myers Brown’s influence. I return to this description in closing this finite study of an ongoing tradition and the woman who is in the driver’s seat. The path she travels, like all human endeavor, is neither straight nor narrow, but a long, wide, winding, often bumpy road. In fact, as Vanessa Thomas Smith pointed out in our interview, JB manifests a

sensibility in life of understanding that our path is very circular. Our interactions with each other, with our careers…but eventually, your paths will cross again: to me a very Afrocentric sensibility in understanding our life cycle and the cycle of things.

To: Brenda Dixon Gottschild (for Joan Myers Brown)

Good Morning Ms. Joan Myers Brown……

O how you captured life with your conversation of

feet. legs. thighs. hands. dancing blue midnite

bells for our African American pulse……

O how you opened up the American dance stage to

the flutters. pirouettes. jazz steps/petals coming

from a thousand feet dropping red yellow purple

block prints against past silences until we

shimmered with dreams and memory of our own eyes……

O how your legacy: Philadanco: awakened us to

the wings of butterflies humming sweet life. life. life.

as you documented our dreams that ran from our knees

to our heart……

O how we treasure you; give thanks to your vision of

new clothing for this Thing called American dance……

O you woman close to the ancestors……

©2011 by Sonia Sanchez. All rights reserved.