i feel like dancing, 2025

 i feel like dancing is a cinepoem inspired by Man Ray’s 1926 short film “Emak-Bakia.” I filmed i feel like dancing in my apartment in Brooklyn using my web camera.  I took an interest in  Man Ray’s use of collage, and stacking video and images on top of one another. Witnessing his film, I felt as if I was watching visual poetry. The poem  is named after the short film. I wrote the original poem after experiencing the end of a relationship, the loss of my family home in Haiti due to the ongoing violence in Port-Au-Prince, and constantly witnessing images, and footage of lifeless bodies.  No matter how much I danced, sung, walked, and took up as many classes I was not free from feeling and nor did I want to ever feel apathetic. The images towards the end of the short film were shot in Abidjan, Portland, Jamaica, Paris, Port-Au-Prince, and in the African Market in Harlem. The first swirling image of Pearl Bailey was taken by Carl Van Vetchen, and the second circling image of a woman caught right before she was swept away by the dance floor was taken by Roy DeCarava; both of these images were taken in Harlem. Harlem is significant because it is a city where individuals have mobilized, organized, and protested and often music and dance were part of this protest. I am interested in making films that speak to protest and liberation. i feel like dancing is my way of understanding that we are all connected—collectively.