Stateside's conversation with jessica Care moore
jessica Care moore is an award-winning poet and activist who grew up in Detroit. This week, she returns to her hometown to debut a unique performance combining her own history, a Detroit techno soundtrack, and dance.
The performance is titled Salt City, and moore describes it as an "Afrofuturistic techno choreo-poem."
“I wanted to tell a story about a brown girl in the future,” moore said.
The work is set in the year 3071 in Salt City, a reference to the large salt mines below Detroit. The main character travels through time on a journey to reclaim the history of her family. The performance deals with themes of identity and displacement, which moore says were inspired by the gentrification happening in cities around the world.
The show was workshopped for four years with actors from Spelman College and Moorehouse before winning a grant that allowed them to produce it. moore says that her team is hoping to bring the show to other cities, but it was important to her that it debuted in Detroit.
"This is the moment right here, and I wanted to launch Salt City in Salt City," she said.
Salt City runs June 13-16 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
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