Day 7 𖦹 DANCE

We are officially one week into this project. Yahoo! Sounds include a poem by Cameron Awkward-Rich, Aimee taking over the tea stand and, of course, Arnie and Joy. Cover photo by Jesse. Until tomorrow!

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Okay. Day seven.

SPEAKER_05 0:07

Free tea.

SPEAKER_07 0:15

30 days of free tea in Mary Hernandez Park.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Okay, day seven.

SPEAKER_05 0:21

What's up?

SPEAKER_03 0:23

How are you feeling, Amy?

SPEAKER_05 0:25

Um, excited and nervous.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

What are you nervous about?

SPEAKER_05 0:30

Um, I think just sitting here it feels pretty vulnerable, like waiting for people to approach me. Like I feel like people just look and they smile and I can see the curiosity in their eyes and they keep walking. But I think it's like a lot of the time, I know for me I do have the time, but I'd rather like pretend I don't so that I don't have to do something scary.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Look who it is. The most committed T-stand visitors.

SPEAKER_05 0:58

Joy and Ani? Yeah!

SPEAKER_02 1:01

I've heard of y'all. I need to do this properly. Take off your take off the shoes.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Dance just shows me like how I'm doing. Actually, recently I had a cathartic moment where I was having a bad day. And I was like so stiff. And like my mind was like telling me that I suck. And I just went to the bathroom and I just cried. And I was like, if it wasn't for dance, like I might not have been able to move that through me. Like, it's like so cathartic. And on a good day, I feel like myself and free. And just like the joy is just so expansive.

SPEAKER_06 1:41

It it genuinely feels like an exorcism sometimes, and we get emotional at the club because you like are actively processing it in real time and you feel it move through your cells.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

I'm speaking from experience when I say like people are scared of being Chrissy. If my friends back in Toronto saw me, they would say I'm like an entirely different person. Yeah. Much freer, much happier.

SPEAKER_06 2:19

Um I feel a little bit of grief for my childhood self, but also um pride because I'm growing so much and I feel it. I think there was like um baseline of fear that I always felt that I'm radically unlearning. Dancing really helps.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I feel so much better. I wasn't even feeling bad. I feel so much better.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

If I was feeling weird before, no more weirdness. They left me. I'm just super here. And there's miles.

SPEAKER_07 3:02

It's not about trying to only feel positive things or trying to avoid the negative ones. It's about letting yourself feel the full weight and magnitude of everything. The most beautiful moments of your life will often come from the most painful. I've slowly learned that I just need to get to the point. I don't have time to tell people I'm doing okay when I'm not. And I've also like when I say I'm not doing okay, immediately everyone's like, how can I help? And so I've just gotten like the positive feedback and reward for being honest over and over and over here. Where now it's like, yeah, when I'm not doing well, that's the first thing I'm gonna tell you. And I like when people say that to me. I like when people are straight up and they tell me about what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

How do you think that would change the world if we were all that honest? With one another.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Oh I heard my heart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 4:16

All the politics and war. I mean, it's like it's all built on lies. It's like there's this arrogance. I mean, sorry, and this dishonesty that allows people to mistreat other humans and subject them to subhuman conditions. We're only able to treat other people terribly when we're not honest about how valuable their lived experience also is. When you buy into this idea that my lived experience is more important than yours, that lie, that's what enables the atrocities of the world that are unfolding all around.

SPEAKER_03 5:15

There's this poem that I'd like to read. Meditations in an Emergency by Cameron Awkward Rich. I wake up and it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds and the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside, I ride the train, walk among the buildings, men in Monday suits, the flight of doves, the city of tents beneath the underpass, the huddled mass, old women hawking roses, and children. All of them break my heart. There's a dream I have in which I love the world. I run from end to end like fingers through her hair. There are no borders, only wind. Like you, I was born. Like you, I was raised in the institution of dreaming. Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart. Miles.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

Is it six o'clock? It's six o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

Amy, how do you feel?

SPEAKER_05 6:43

The tea stand is closed. I am cold. But it was like a beautiful day, and I felt like I met some amazing people. And how are you feeling about tomorrow?

SPEAKER_07 6:55

I think it's gonna be sunny yet again. And this is probably the most energized I've been since the first couple days. So I'm I'm so ready.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_07 7:06

I'm ready too. Let's go. Let's do it, man.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

Let's do it.