It’s an Old Battle

Our eighth installment features C. Brian Williams, with our host Courtney J. Boddie from the Teaching Artistry with Courtney J. Boddie Podcast, who creates space for people and opinions that were not offered before.

With William’s cultivation of Step Afrika 25+ years ago, the organization has aggressively enforced sharing the overlooked parts of American History in efforts to educate all backgrounds upon African American culture. There contains powerful results when individuals are exposed to knowledge; knowing more allows us to do better for the future and ask questions, such as Why aren’t these lessons taught? Why don’t we know about activists that were fighting for freedom before the Boston Tea Party? Etc. 

Step Afrika! dancing’s cultural ritual tradition was manifested by African American fraternity and sororities towards celebration, however, the history’s origins are usually unknown by the very fraternity and sororities taking it on for practice, which led Williams to research and construct the organization because unknown answers were not enough. 

Context about Step Afrika!: 

It is the first professional company dedicated to the tradition of stepping. By blending percussive dance styles practiced by historically African American fraternities and sororities; traditional African dances; and an array of contemporary dance and art forms into a cohesive, compelling artistic experience. Performances are much more than dance shows; they integrate songs, storytelling, humor and audience participation. Step Afrika! promotes stepping as an educational tool for young people, focusing on teamwork, academic achievement and cross-cultural understanding. The Company reaches tens of thousands of Americans each year through a 50-city tour of colleges and theaters and performs globally as Washington, DC’s one and only Cultural Ambassador.

Step Afrika! draws inspiration from transformative moments in America, such as Stono Rebellion 1739 and The Negro Act of 1740, because we all need to learn the history. Looking specifically at the history of protests, these have been essential moments that push us forward while holding individuals accountable to the foundations of freedom. With 2020 being monumental, due to both pandemics, we have reached a point where “innocent ignorance” is not acceptable. Our world contains both individual and systemic racism, but we have to focus on fighting systems in order to penetrate individuals. 

Shifting towards arts organizations, we must examine what historic structures have prevented growth towards equity. With many arts organizations being predominantly White-led, they must execute empathy to imagine how being BIPOC brings structural inequities that make survival difficult. Therefore, actions such as multi-year partnering and donor sharing can help spread the wealth. 

Williams hopes that the next generation feels no limits, where being labeled BIPOC does not equate to bad connotations; individuals looked upon as human, nothing else. 

Join us next week when Courtney interviews Ashley Herring who is blessed to be a performing arts educator in Dorchester’s Charter School network with brilliant Black and Brown youth. She does her best every day to have fun with kids, support them in understanding that they're already artists and that art is activism.

C. Brian Williams is a native of Houston, Texas, and graduate of Howard University. He first learned to step as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. – Beta Chapter, in the Spring of 1989. While living in Southern Africa, he began to research the percussive dance tradition of stepping, exploring the many sides of this exciting, yet under-recognized American art form and founded Step Afrika! in 1994. Williams has performed, lectured and taught in Europe, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean and throughout the United States. He is the founder of the monumental Step Afrika! International Cultural Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Through Williams’ leadership, stepping has evolved into one of America’s newest cultural exports and inspired the designation of Step Afrika! as Washington, D.C.’s official “Cultural Ambassador.” Williams has been cited as a “civic/community visionary” by NV Magazine, a “nation builder” by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and a “minority business leader” by the Washington Business Journal. He is the recipient of numerous Artist Fellowships; the Distinguished Arts Award from the Coalition for African-Americans in the Performing Arts; the Pola Nirenska Award for Contemporary Achievement in Dance. He is also featured in Soulstepping, the first book to document the history of stepping. He also earned the 2008 Mayor’s Art Award for Innovation in the Arts and has led the company to multiple Metro DC Dance Awards for “Outstanding New Work”, “Excellence in Stage Design/Multimedia” and “Outstanding Group Performance.” In 2018, Williams received the Mayor’s Arts Award for Visionary Leadership from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.