We’re so grateful to the community that showed up this Monday to listen and learn at Mile 18: One Year Later...A Conversation on the Labor & Love of Belonging.

RedLine presented choreographer, performance artist, and artivist (artist-activist) Helanius J. Wilkins in conversation with Atlanta-based writer, Black power advocate, and community organizer John Burl Smith for Mile 18: One Year Later…A Conversation on the Labor & Love of Belonging, a FREE community event that honored and celebrated the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

This event continued last year’s Mile 17: A Conversation on the Labor & Love of Belonging conversation from a different perspective. It aimed to create a brave and courageous space to bring together intergenerational members of the Denver-metro area to reflect on stories that inform our sense of belonging and community today, and dreams for a better future.

This event emerges from Wilkins’s The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging – a multi-year, multi-outcome multimedia dance work that confronts and celebrates heritage, resiliency, justice, and hope.

A lively conversation between Wilkins and Smith—who personally knew Dr. King—traversed themes of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and social activism/artivism. The event included a Q & A segment with audience-participants.

If you weren’t able to attend or to catch the livestream on our Facebook or Instagram, you can now watch a video featuring the audio and a visual collage from the event.

Hear the inspiring and enlightening conversation with civil rights legend John B. Smith and Helanius J. Wilkins below!

VIDEO: MLK Day Discussion with John B. Smith & Helanius J. Wilkins

Learn More About Helanius J. Wilkins, Award-Winning Choreographer, Performance Artist, Innovator, and Arts in Society Grantee

RedLine is a proud partner and administrator of the yearly Arts in Society artist grant. Funded through a cohort of Colorado foundations, this collaborative program provides grants to both individuals and organizations that use art as a vehicle to promote social justice and community welfare. 

We highlighted our 2022 Art in Society (AIS) grant recipients and the incredible projects, programs, and events supported by their grant. We were delighted to kick off this series with Helanius J. Wilkins: Award-winning Choreographer, Performance Artist, and Innovator.

“Wilkins's creative projects are rooted in the interconnections of American contemporary performance, cultural history, and identities of Black men. His work examines the raced dancing body and the ways that ritual can access forms of knowledge. 

“Intrigued by ideas about indeterminacy in creative process and performance, he approaches performance and pedagogy as means of re-framing perspectives, creative practices, and technical training. In his intermedia collaborations, he works with artists from a wide range of disciplines, including film, video, and design.”

Learn all about Helanius’ 2022 Arts in Society project The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging.