Oct 223 min read

Award-Winning Choreographer Explores Reconstruction

Hope B. Byers is recipient of a 2024 Howard County Arts Council IAM Creativity Grant, the largest award in the choreography category. She is a veteran choreographer whose large body of work, created in Baltimore across more than a decade, explores Black American experiences, history, racism, and social justice. The Baltimore Dance Bulletin asked Byers about her new work “1868: Liberation and the Ever Lashing,” which premieres November 3 at the Baltimore Museum of Art as part of Full Circle Dance Company's show "From the Source of Our Power."

Photo: Brion McCarthy Photography | Dancer & Choreographer: Hope B. Byers

Q. Your work is about Reconstruction. Tell us what you want the audience to know about this period in American history.

The Reconstruction period, 1865-1877, was a time of unprecedented change. Instrumental to this change were the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution that abolished American chattel slavery, granted citizenship to all people born in the U.S. and equal protection under the laws, and guaranteed the right to vote for Black American men. With the amendments’ focus on establishing equality in law, the period came to be known as the “second founding” of America. A second founding meant hope for Black Americans, finally, after centuries of enslavement. But among those who were not committed to equality for all, resistance grew and took on many forms, most prevalent—violence. There was so much promise and potential for the nation to evolve during Reconstruction. We have to dig into the layers of why it did not.

Q. Why did you want to focus today on events that happened around 1868?

I believe that the past informs our present and future. History is not a was—it’s an is. It offers lessons to help us think critically about our current experiences, if we choose to accept history’s truth.

I wanted to explore the complex Reconstruction period for various reasons. For one, to illuminate a period that is often overlooked and has been historically presented with a skewed narrative painted by those who were against Reconstruction’s goals. I also believe Reconstruction offers a lens through which to view and examine Black advancement. With each surge of progress that Black Americans have made over the last three centuries, there has always been resistance in some form. Again, we have to ask why the pattern still exists.

Q. You received significant grant support for this work from an IAM Creativity Grant from the Howard County Arts Council. What has that grant support meant for your development of this work?

The IAM Creativity Grant from the Howard County Arts Council has helped me to expand my vision for this work. I have a theatrical approach that involves multi-faceted elements including intricate costuming, props, lighting, writing, and spoken word. The grant has enabled me to put these aspects into place without as much strict expense management, and it has allowed me to center the creative process. I am grateful for this grant program and to the Howard County Arts Council as well as the selection committee for this incredible opportunity.

Q. How does this piece fit into your larger body of work, and how does it fit with the overall theme of the November 3 performance at the BMA, which is Power?

I am driven to explore truth, including in the dark, uncomfortable parts of history. Renowned journalist and civil rights activist, Ida B. Wells, said, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” I try to carry this approach across all of my works including my latest. Turning the light of truth on the downfall of Reconstruction amid Black Americans' progress, i.e. their power, is in effect how I speak truth to power.