# Uplift: She uses power of dance as activism, and honoring sacred spaces tied to African-American heritage.

An episode of [Money Making Conversations Master Class](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1264705641), 15 Feb 2025, 26 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/b1db7263-d1a3-4d00-8976-af62012aab44/897d30d5-d6a6-4089-929f-b3000159f00b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=35a10561-3e1b-4d05-a529-af62012aab6a

Listen and subscribe to Money Making Conversations on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, www.moneymakingconversations.com/subscribe/ or wherever you listen to podcasts. New Money Making Conversations episodes drop daily. I want to alert you, so you don’t miss out on expert analysis and insider perspectives from my guests who provide tips that can help you uplift the community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Keep winning! Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Stacey Allen. Founder and artistic director of Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective. The conversation centers around the power of dance as activism, preserving Black history, and honoring sacred spaces tied to African-American heritage. Stacey also shares details about her Juneteenth performance in Galveston and the deep cultural research driving her work. 📘 Featured Books • Author: Stacey Allen • Titles: Two children’s books inspired by Black history and cultural storytelling • Award: 2024 Children’s Publication Award from the National Association of Multicultural Education • Purpose: Educate young readers on the legacy of African-American heritage through empowering stories and dance narratives 💃🏾 About Nia’s Daughters Movement Collective • Mission: To support art and wellness initiatives through the lens of Black women and girls • Focus: Dance as a medium for healing, history, and empowerment • Performances: The Fairytale Project explores the Texas Freedom Colonies and African-American migration stories • Tours: Performed in Texas small towns and juvenile justice centers to inspire justice-impacted youth 💡 Key Themes & Insights • Juneteenth Legacy: Honoring Galveston as sacred ground—the site where freedom was delayed but celebrated • African Diaspora Connection: Stacey recounts her emotional visit to Gorée Island, Senegal, linking slave departure points to arrival ports like Galveston • Freedom Colonies: Texas has over 500 historically Black towns built post-emancipation, which Stacey incorporates into her performances • Dance as Resistance: The Collective uses choreography to tell untold stories of Black resilience, cultural identity, and social justice • Educational Responsibility: Rashad and Stacey discuss the systemic erasure of Black history and the need to reclaim it through grassroots storytelling 🔁 Personal Journey • Stacey, a native Houstonian with a degree in dance and anthropology, has committed her life to storytelling through movement • Her work blends academic research with lived experiences, from rural Texas to West Africa, using dance to preserve ancestral memory 📣 Call to Action Listeners are encouraged to support Stacey’s work, book her company for performances, and share her children’s books in classrooms and libraries. Visit niasdaughters.com or follow @niasdaughters on Instagram and Facebook. #SHMS #STRAW #BEST Money Making Conversations Master Class with Rushion McDonald is America's premier entrepreneurship, business leadership, financial literacy, and wealth-building podcast featuring successful entrepreneurs, executives, founders, celebrities, and industry experts sharing actionable insights for professional and financial success. Business Podcast Entrepreneurship Small Business Business Growth Financial Literacy Wealth Building Black Entrepreneurs Minority Business Leadership Executive Leadership Business Funding Marketing Strategies Personal Development Startup Advice Sales Training CEO Interviews Founder Stories Professional Development Economic Empowerment Business Success Networking Brand Building Innovation How to start a business Small business funding Entrepreneur success stories Business leadership podcast Wealth building strategies Black entrepreneur podcast Minority business development Marketing for small businesses Business growth strategies…

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Rashon McDonald.
[0:01] Speaker 2: I host this weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The
[0:05] Speaker 2: interviews and information that this show provides are for you
[0:08] Speaker 2: and everyone. It's time to start reading other people's success
[0:11] Speaker 2: stories and start living your own now. If you want
[0:14] Speaker 2: to be a guest on my show, Money Making Conversation
[0:17] Speaker 2: Master Class, please visit our website, Moneymaking Conversations dot com
[0:21] Speaker 2: and click.
[0:22] Speaker 1: The b a guest, Butudon.
[0:23] Speaker 2: If you're an entrepreneur, small business owner, influencer, motivational speaker,
[0:27] Speaker 2: I've got a product. I want you on my show,
[0:30] Speaker 2: So let's get your show started. My next guest is
[0:32] Speaker 2: the founder and artistic director of Nil's Daughter's Movement Collective,
[0:38] Speaker 2: a professional dance company committed to creating and supporting art
[0:42] Speaker 2: and wellness initiatives through the lens of Black women and girls.
[0:47] Speaker 2: Stacey is the author of two children's books and recipient
[0:50] Speaker 2: of the twenty twenty four Children's Publication Award from the
[0:54] Speaker 2: National Association of Multicultural Education. Please welcome to Money Making
[0:59] Speaker 2: Conversation Master Last Stacey Allen.
[1:01] Speaker 1: How you doing, Stacey?
[1:04] Speaker 3: Hello? Hello, thank you so much for having me. How
[1:06] Speaker 3: are you?
[1:07] Speaker 2: I'm great, pretty good, I'm doing really good stacy telling.
[1:11] Speaker 2: Is your background on dance? Why is dance importing to you?
[1:17] Speaker 4: So I decided in about high school that I wanted
[1:20] Speaker 4: to study dance when I got to college, and at
[1:22] Speaker 4: the time, I had to say that it was more
[1:25] Speaker 4: of a hobby. But as I've matriculated through my dance
[1:29] Speaker 4: education and then ultimately became a dance educator, I realized
[1:33] Speaker 4: the storytelling.
[1:34] Speaker 3: Power that dance had right and I.
[1:36] Speaker 4: Understand how specifically as people of African descent, dance and
[1:42] Speaker 4: music have always been critical in us being able to
[1:46] Speaker 4: keep our histories and tell our own stories.
[1:48] Speaker 3: So that's why dance.
[1:50] Speaker 1: Now where did you go to college yet?
[1:53] Speaker 4: I did my undergraduate degree at sam Houston State University
[1:58] Speaker 4: and I got a degree in that And I always
[2:01] Speaker 4: say that I had very supportive parents, because a lot
[2:05] Speaker 4: of times, you know, more traditional families are less inclined
[2:09] Speaker 4: to support their children getting find arts degrees. But I'll
[2:13] Speaker 4: say that my parents were a little bit ahead of
[2:15] Speaker 4: their time. They supported me and getting that degree from
[2:18] Speaker 4: sam Houston, a Bachelor of Arts and Dance. And then
[2:20] Speaker 4: I went to graduate school at University of Houston Clear
[2:23] Speaker 4: Lake and received a master's and cross.
[2:26] Speaker 3: Cultural studies where I studied a.
[2:28] Speaker 4: Lot of dance anthropology and did a lot of other
[2:30] Speaker 4: research on dance and music.
[2:33] Speaker 2: Let's talk about that because I think it's important because
[2:35] Speaker 2: a lot of people out of fear, don't follow their
[2:38] Speaker 2: dreams based on what people would think of. People try
[2:41] Speaker 2: to push you to what they think you should be,
[2:45] Speaker 2: and I think it's important that you are living the
[2:46] Speaker 2: life that you wanted to live. Talk about the impact
[2:49] Speaker 2: of having that support system, following your dreams and living
[2:53] Speaker 2: a life without fear.
[2:56] Speaker 4: Thank you so much for asking that. I think that
[2:58] Speaker 4: that is really critical. When I believe that God puts
[3:03] Speaker 4: a purpose inside of us, and when we are able
[3:06] Speaker 4: to live out that purpose and have support, I think
[3:10] Speaker 4: that the guy is the limit. It has been super critical.
[3:14] Speaker 4: My family still supports me. My dad transitioned about eleven
[3:18] Speaker 4: years ago, and my mom is still very supportive of
[3:22] Speaker 4: all the work I do, my husband, even my children.
[3:25] Speaker 3: I have a strong village and I can.
[3:28] Speaker 4: Just see how their support really helps to bring this
[3:32] Speaker 4: art forward.
[3:33] Speaker 2: Ok let's talk about this station. Because the power of
[3:37] Speaker 2: dance of activism. Okay, you know, because your dance and
[3:42] Speaker 2: engages social injustice and political movement, and through dance talk
[3:48] Speaker 2: about it. You know, you are really interesting and and
[3:52] Speaker 2: I gotta appreciate you even more in this interview because
[3:56] Speaker 2: sometimes you know, people say dance and they all they
[3:59] Speaker 2: see is just the dance, but they don't understand the
[4:01] Speaker 2: story that you're telling what you're dance. Talk to us
[4:05] Speaker 2: about that, because this is not a normal interview for me,
[4:08] Speaker 2: because it's always it's always fun when I talk to
[4:12] Speaker 2: people I've never talked to and I've never talked to
[4:14] Speaker 2: a person like you. And along the way in this conversation,
[4:19] Speaker 2: I'm more and more engaged because it's like I thought
[4:22] Speaker 2: it was this, but I'm realizing there's so much more.
[4:26] Speaker 2: So let's talk about dance as a power of activism.
[4:29] Speaker 4: Yeah, so there's a long legacy of people who have
[4:33] Speaker 4: used their art as activism tools. You know, artists are
[4:37] Speaker 4: some of the forefronts of the people who led movements
[4:40] Speaker 4: like the civil rights movements. And clearly some of the
[4:42] Speaker 4: things that we're seeing right now come from a long
[4:45] Speaker 4: legacy of dance makers who are activists. And so my
[4:50] Speaker 4: goal in the art that I create with dance is education.
[4:56] Speaker 4: Like we've talked about people uncovering things that they did
[4:59] Speaker 4: not know about themselves, people feeling embodied in their own selves,
[5:04] Speaker 4: having autonomy, knowing that they can.
[5:08] Speaker 3: Realize the dreams that they have.
[5:11] Speaker 4: One of the things I was really intentional about when
[5:14] Speaker 4: I wrote my children's books was explaining African American expressive
[5:19] Speaker 4: culture in the history of it.
[5:21] Speaker 3: So the first book, A.
[5:23] Speaker 4: Little Optimism Goes a Long Way, teaches students about who
[5:26] Speaker 4: Catherine Dunham is. And so I wrote that book because
[5:29] Speaker 4: Catherine Dunham is a legendary dance maker anthropologists, and when
[5:36] Speaker 4: I was teaching in elementary school, I was teaching elementary
[5:39] Speaker 4: school dance in a public school. Often my students not
[5:42] Speaker 4: only did I know who she was, but there weren't
[5:44] Speaker 4: many educational materials to support me teaching who she was.
[5:50] Speaker 4: So I created that right. The same thing with my
[5:52] Speaker 4: second book, d is for Dance. Dancing through the Diaspora
[5:56] Speaker 4: is a through z of different African diaspora dance styles
[6:00] Speaker 4: for each letter, and it's very much informed through my
[6:04] Speaker 4: research and my travels and what I have learned about
[6:07] Speaker 4: all the powerful styles of dance throughout the African diaspora.
[6:11] Speaker 4: And so that is my activism is making sure that
[6:14] Speaker 4: people are more educated about themselves, and sometimes it comes
[6:19] Speaker 4: in the shiny package of a performance, and sometimes it
[6:22] Speaker 4: becomes in a book form, sometimes it becomes it comes
[6:27] Speaker 4: out through film.
[6:28] Speaker 3: And so that's truly.
[6:30] Speaker 4: My activism is making sure we know who we are because,
[6:33] Speaker 4: like you said it, you make the groundwork by saying,
[6:36] Speaker 4: when you.
[6:36] Speaker 3: Know who you are, you can start making some different choices.
[6:39] Speaker 2: Now, Stacey Aloy you stone in Okay, I'm from Houston, Texas.
[6:43] Speaker 1: Everybody knows that.
[6:44] Speaker 2: Who listens to my podcast podcast No, I love Houston, Texas. Now,
[6:50] Speaker 2: I'm no dancer, but I've seen artistic dance scene throughout
[6:56] Speaker 2: the Black community. It always appears at events, especially culture
[7:00] Speaker 2: true events.
[7:01] Speaker 1: Why is that the case?
[7:03] Speaker 3: Because Black people love to dance and we're good at it.
[7:08] Speaker 1: Stop that.
[7:11] Speaker 4: No, Like I was saying earlier, dance is a critical
[7:16] Speaker 4: part of our expression. Even when you think about our
[7:20] Speaker 4: ancestors that lived on the continent of Africa, dance is
[7:23] Speaker 4: what told the stories.
[7:24] Speaker 3: The Grios used drum.
[7:25] Speaker 4: And dance to be able to communicate the history from
[7:29] Speaker 4: one generation to the next. And so my goal is
[7:32] Speaker 4: to keep up that legacy. Yes, if any of you
[7:36] Speaker 4: have you have you all seen the movie Centers and
[7:39] Speaker 4: that powerful scene whenever.
[7:42] Speaker 3: I don't know spoilers, I'm sorry if you haven't seen it.
[7:45] Speaker 2: Us Spauler, let's that scene, that dance scene. I saw
[7:48] Speaker 2: Centers twice. So definitely he used music, he used culture.
[7:53] Speaker 2: All that was what made that movie significant.
[7:56] Speaker 4: Absolutely, and so that is our goal with the work
[8:01] Speaker 4: that we produce a lot of our work, specifically when
[8:04] Speaker 4: Nias Dard's movie Collective is surround the African American history
[8:08] Speaker 4: in Texas. Our first show that we really put out
[8:12] Speaker 4: that has been touring for the last three years is
[8:14] Speaker 4: called The fairy Tale Project, and the fairy Tale Project
[8:17] Speaker 4: is based on the love story of Jim and Winnie Shankle,
[8:20] Speaker 4: and those are two founders of the Texas Freedom Colony, Shankleville.
[8:25] Speaker 4: So I know you've been, you know, playing around with
[8:29] Speaker 4: me about not being from Houston, being from Houston, being
[8:32] Speaker 4: from a different part of Houston. But did you know
[8:35] Speaker 4: that in Texas alone that there are over five hundred
[8:38] Speaker 4: freedom colonies. A freedom colony is defined as a historically
[8:42] Speaker 4: significant community where essentially, from emancipation through the Great Depression,
[8:47] Speaker 4: black people started their own towns, and a lot of
[8:50] Speaker 4: those towns are.
[8:51] Speaker 3: In rural Texas.
[8:52] Speaker 4: A lot of them are in rural East Texas and
[8:54] Speaker 4: there's a significant amount in Central Texas. And so what
[8:58] Speaker 4: we've been able to do with Dan is tell the
[9:00] Speaker 4: story of these freedom colonies, specifically Shankoville. We have a
[9:06] Speaker 4: performance that we premiere at Discovery Green in twenty twenty two,
[9:09] Speaker 4: but we've been touring it over the last three years
[9:12] Speaker 4: and it's about that. And then from there we have
[9:15] Speaker 4: created even more work about African American history in Texas.
[9:20] Speaker 4: We spent a significant amount of time in Crockett. Crockett
[9:23] Speaker 4: is a small town kind of situated between Houston and Dallas,
[9:27] Speaker 4: and the women who created the Mary Allen Seminary, which
[9:30] Speaker 4: was the first colored women's college in the area. So
[9:34] Speaker 4: our goal with Dance is essentially to carry that legacy
[9:38] Speaker 4: that our ancestors have done and to tell our stories
[9:41] Speaker 4: through movement.
[9:42] Speaker 3: And it has been a beautiful.
[9:44] Speaker 4: Experience when we are able to share history through movement.
[9:49] Speaker 4: Just yesterday, we had the beautiful opportunity to perform this
[9:55] Speaker 4: piece the fairy Tale Project at the Juvenile Justice Detentions.
[10:00] Speaker 4: So we had a group of about fifteen young women
[10:05] Speaker 4: who are you know, just dis impacted at the moment
[10:09] Speaker 4: and they dance with us, We get a workshop with them,
[10:11] Speaker 4: We talk to them about black history, we talk to
[10:14] Speaker 4: them about Junge teenth, We talked to them about all
[10:17] Speaker 4: these things, and we did the show inside of their facility.
[10:20] Speaker 3: So we really find this work.
[10:23] Speaker 4: Not only fun and engaging, but also critically important.
[10:29] Speaker 2: For empowering people because sometimes if you don't know your history,
[10:33] Speaker 2: then you don't know your history. And when I say that,
[10:36] Speaker 2: because of the fact that you don't know the relevancy
[10:39] Speaker 2: of you when you step out of your house, the
[10:42] Speaker 2: culture that you bring, the tone of precentation that you
[10:45] Speaker 2: should be presenting yourself of if you realize you are
[10:49] Speaker 2: from king you are from Queens, you are from the Motherland.
[10:53] Speaker 2: Now let's talk about the importance of Juneteenth, Okay, because
[10:57] Speaker 2: I'm talking to a true culture, a true authority, authority
[11:02] Speaker 2: of Texas black history.
[11:04] Speaker 1: Tell us about the significance of June teenth, because now.
[11:07] Speaker 2: It's national, but you and I both know Texas was
[11:10] Speaker 2: way ahead of Juneteenth before it went national.
[11:13] Speaker 1: Talk to me, Stacy.
[11:14] Speaker 4: So that's something we can agree on as Texas Natives.
[11:18] Speaker 4: We know that June teen started in Galveston, right, not
[11:22] Speaker 4: too farward either. One of us grew up and we
[11:25] Speaker 4: spent a lot of time, and so I think it's
[11:28] Speaker 4: this is one hundred and sixtieth year of June teenth.
[11:31] Speaker 4: I think that it is critical for us to make
[11:36] Speaker 4: that pilgrimage, make that return. Not only is Galveston the
[11:39] Speaker 4: home of June teenth, Galveston is the largest port that
[11:44] Speaker 4: received our ancestors west of the Mississippi.
[11:48] Speaker 2: Right.
[11:48] Speaker 3: So, just like I got the chance to take a.
[11:53] Speaker 4: Beautiful trip to Senegal last summer, and I spent time
[11:58] Speaker 4: in Gory Island, where a lot of the slaves castles
[12:00] Speaker 4: was and as you can imagine, that was an emotional
[12:03] Speaker 4: and spiritual transformative experience. And what it really made me
[12:06] Speaker 4: think about as I came back home, it was like,
[12:09] Speaker 4: you know, just as these places in Senegal and Ghana
[12:14] Speaker 4: our slave ports where our ancestors were taken, places like
[12:18] Speaker 4: Galaston and Charleston are places where they were receiving, and
[12:21] Speaker 4: so they both served as sacred and ground, sacred grounds
[12:26] Speaker 4: that we should be commemorating. And so I think this
[12:29] Speaker 4: is the time, during all the things that are occurring,
[12:33] Speaker 4: for such a time as this is a time to
[12:35] Speaker 4: make that pilgrimage back to Galveston Let's.
[12:38] Speaker 1: Talk about the station.
[12:38] Speaker 2: I'm talking to Stacey Allen, the founder and artistic director
[12:41] Speaker 2: of Nia's Daughter's Movement Movement collective.
[12:46] Speaker 1: Let's talk about their emotional moment, because I've been there.
[12:49] Speaker 2: You know, when you go to places where you read
[12:52] Speaker 2: about in the book, you read it and.
[12:54] Speaker 1: Then you see it. You see in disbelief the conditions.
[12:58] Speaker 2: I think that's what grabs you the most and you realize, Okay,
[13:04] Speaker 2: they went across the ocean and this was the conditions.
[13:07] Speaker 2: Talk about that emotional moment you did, that you had
[13:12] Speaker 2: and what was your takeaway from the experience when you
[13:15] Speaker 2: went over there.
[13:17] Speaker 3: Step So you have.
[13:19] Speaker 4: To take a ship like a boat, a fairy if
[13:21] Speaker 4: you will, to get to Gory Island, right because it's not.
[13:24] Speaker 3: On the mainland.
[13:25] Speaker 4: So even as soon as you step onto the ship,
[13:30] Speaker 4: for me, I have to have full embodied experience. I
[13:33] Speaker 4: could feel my gut dropped, like, oh this, what if
[13:37] Speaker 4: we get Like in many ways I kind of went
[13:40] Speaker 4: into a mini panic, like what if we get stuck here?
[13:42] Speaker 3: What happens? And then when we arrived.
[13:45] Speaker 4: There, what felt in addition to like the emotional pull
[13:50] Speaker 4: that understanding what our ancestors went through in that Middle Passage.
[13:54] Speaker 4: It was also coming to terms with the hustle and
[13:59] Speaker 4: bustle of Gorey Island. And in many ways, Gorey Island
[14:03] Speaker 4: is a tourist attraction, so like making sense of that
[14:07] Speaker 4: in your mind, like, you know, this is something that
[14:09] Speaker 4: happened to our ancestors, but this land has also been repurposed,
[14:15] Speaker 4: if you will, utilized for a different purpose. And how
[14:18] Speaker 4: do you make sense of that? And it's actually grappling
[14:22] Speaker 4: with that is what I had to make sense of.
[14:24] Speaker 4: Galveston galvesin is a tourist attraction. People come to Galveston
[14:28] Speaker 4: for you know, recreation and also like but this is
[14:32] Speaker 4: also a slave port. It's been an interesting emotional journey.
[14:37] Speaker 4: I don't have all the answers yet because I have
[14:40] Speaker 4: been engaged.
[14:41] Speaker 3: In doing several returns.
[14:43] Speaker 4: In twenty twenty four, not only did I go to Senegal,
[14:46] Speaker 4: but I also went to East Texas for the first
[14:48] Speaker 4: time since COVID. That's where my maternal family is from.
[14:53] Speaker 4: They're from a Freedom Colony in Panola County, East Texas.
[14:56] Speaker 4: And then I also went to Mississippi, where my dad's
[14:59] Speaker 4: family is from Arts as well, and they sew at
[15:03] Speaker 4: a church called the Aki Chapel that which is still
[15:05] Speaker 4: in existence. So grappling with all those histories, my own
[15:09] Speaker 4: personal family history, that wasn't my first time on the
[15:12] Speaker 4: African continent, but that was my first time in West Africa,
[15:16] Speaker 4: which we understand that's where specifically our ancestors are from.
[15:20] Speaker 4: And then coming back to Texas and being like, oh,
[15:24] Speaker 4: a lot of this area we live on our plantations. Like,
[15:27] Speaker 4: grappling with all of that has been definitely emotional journey.
[15:31] Speaker 3: But I have been able to.
[15:33] Speaker 4: Use that in the art that I create and help
[15:35] Speaker 4: people to start thinking about it, because, like you said,
[15:38] Speaker 4: when you don't know where you come from, it's hard
[15:40] Speaker 4: to know where you're going. And so just helping people
[15:43] Speaker 4: to identify all these sacred grounds, all these migration stories
[15:48] Speaker 4: that our people have been through, has been critical in
[15:52] Speaker 4: helping them to reshape and redefine their own identity.
[15:58] Speaker 5: Please don't go anywhere, be right back with more Money
[16:01] Speaker 5: Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations
[16:12] Speaker 5: Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
[16:20] Speaker 2: At least they needn't know how to get in touch
[16:21] Speaker 2: with you, telling Stacey, the.
[16:23] Speaker 4: Best way to get in touch with us is through
[16:25] Speaker 4: our website www. Dot MEA's Dartist n I a is
[16:30] Speaker 4: Darters felt traditionally dot com and to sign up what
[16:34] Speaker 4: I on our email is. We also are on social
[16:36] Speaker 4: media on Instagram at me A's Darters and on Facebook
[16:41] Speaker 4: at MEA's Darters.
[16:42] Speaker 3: That's the best way.
[16:43] Speaker 4: But I will tell you we do have some tour
[16:46] Speaker 4: dates coming up in the South very very soon that
[16:50] Speaker 4: we'll be announcing.
[16:51] Speaker 2: First of all, I'm impressed with your passion. Can I
[16:54] Speaker 2: say that your passion because you know, I'm an emotional
[16:58] Speaker 2: person and I think that a lot of people who
[17:02] Speaker 2: live live live their life are really engaged in what
[17:04] Speaker 2: they do. You know, they just you know, they go
[17:07] Speaker 2: get a job, it pays well, oh that's the only
[17:10] Speaker 2: job they can get, and they just wake up not happy.
[17:13] Speaker 1: I get the impression. Stay say you're a happy person.
[17:16] Speaker 2: You really are at a point in your life where
[17:19] Speaker 2: you're about to change the world with information and artistic
[17:22] Speaker 2: direction through your dance.
[17:24] Speaker 4: Correct, Yes, thank you better speak life and to me,
[17:26] Speaker 4: I appreciate that.
[17:28] Speaker 2: Yes, now I got to because you know, because your
[17:31] Speaker 2: knowledge when you you know, when I hear people talk
[17:34] Speaker 2: emotionally about something that I want to come see what
[17:37] Speaker 2: you're doing.
[17:37] Speaker 1: I want to see your presentation.
[17:39] Speaker 2: I want to see because to me, I immediately went, Okay,
[17:43] Speaker 2: she needs to do a whole put on her website
[17:47] Speaker 2: all those five hundred freedom cities she was talking about
[17:51] Speaker 2: in Texas. I said, that seems like, you know, that's
[17:54] Speaker 2: that's as big to me as Harriet tumas you know
[17:58] Speaker 2: underground Railroad. Because the fact that if we don't know,
[18:02] Speaker 2: we living in the world today where people are tearing
[18:04] Speaker 2: down information about our community, denying us our past, so
[18:08] Speaker 2: that means we may not have our history. So when
[18:11] Speaker 2: I heard you say that, I went, Okay, now I
[18:13] Speaker 2: got an asd station. What is she doing with that?
[18:16] Speaker 2: What is she doing with that information? Is she putting
[18:18] Speaker 2: that information on the website? If she being the ultimate
[18:21] Speaker 2: storyteller about black history in Texas? Because that's what I
[18:25] Speaker 2: see you becoming, Stacy.
[18:27] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[18:28] Speaker 4: So I do want to say that the Texas Freedom
[18:30] Speaker 4: Colonies Project is a project led by it's the scholarship
[18:34] Speaker 4: of doctor Andrea Roberts. And there is a website is
[18:37] Speaker 4: www dot Texas Freedomcolonies Project dot com. And the site
[18:41] Speaker 4: is everything you just said. It has an at list.
[18:45] Speaker 4: You go into the site there's a map you can
[18:48] Speaker 4: type in by county and you can find those freedom
[18:50] Speaker 4: colonies if you are from those freedom colonies. You can
[18:53] Speaker 4: also input oral history. And there's another side of the
[18:56] Speaker 4: portal that you know that are only for descendants. And
[19:01] Speaker 4: there's lots of work that has come out of that project.
[19:04] Speaker 4: And I am so thankful to be able to work
[19:06] Speaker 4: with the Texas Freedom Colonies Project through artistic expression to
[19:10] Speaker 4: help evangelize if you will, this large body of scholarship.
[19:15] Speaker 2: I'm teasing station born and raised Houston, Texas, knowledgeable god,
[19:20] Speaker 2: a degree in math Okay, considered one of the leaders
[19:24] Speaker 2: and pillars of Houston.
[19:26] Speaker 1: Never heard of it? That angers me.
[19:29] Speaker 2: What do we have to do to get the word
[19:32] Speaker 2: out as well as promote the fact that you are
[19:34] Speaker 2: out there with your dance, Nia's Daughter's Movement collective as
[19:40] Speaker 2: well as this Texas whe was a freedom what's the Texas?
[19:44] Speaker 4: Yes, the Texas Freedom Colonies Project. So let me tell
[19:47] Speaker 4: you something because I know we was joking around about
[19:49] Speaker 4: being from Houston.
[19:50] Speaker 3: I know you've heard of Freedman's Town and for them.
[19:52] Speaker 2: Actually, my sister, my oldest sister, works over there. She
[19:55] Speaker 2: constantly wants me to participate in different fundraising events.
[19:59] Speaker 4: Yes, yes, and then you also probably have heard about
[20:01] Speaker 4: independent Heights.
[20:03] Speaker 1: That's not happen, Okay, okay, But.
[20:06] Speaker 4: Freeman's Town is the one that most people have, and
[20:08] Speaker 4: you know Dallas also has a Freeman's Town.
[20:10] Speaker 3: So what has happened is that most people.
[20:12] Speaker 4: Are more familiar with the freedom towns that are in
[20:16] Speaker 4: a major metropolitan area. The part that people don't know
[20:19] Speaker 4: are all the freedom towns that are in rural areas
[20:23] Speaker 4: because a lot of them due to of course systemic injustices,
[20:30] Speaker 4: but also environmental concerns such as climate disaster. They have
[20:35] Speaker 4: been they're no longer in existent or right. But what
[20:40] Speaker 4: the Texas Freedom Colonies Project has done is to place
[20:43] Speaker 4: make all of those places.
[20:45] Speaker 3: Generally, a freedom colony.
[20:46] Speaker 2: Has a like a stone or something like that, a plat.
[20:51] Speaker 4: Yes, sometimes they have a Texas Historical marker, but a
[20:54] Speaker 4: lot of times they're define. They usually have a school,
[20:57] Speaker 4: they usually have a cemetery and the church. But let
[21:00] Speaker 4: me ask you this, because I know you grew up
[21:01] Speaker 4: in Fifth Ward, but where are your people from.
[21:03] Speaker 3: I'm sure they're from the country or Louis.
[21:05] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they they're from Sweet Port. Louisiana. Bochy, come on,
[21:09] Speaker 1: come on now, I.
[21:10] Speaker 2: Ain't gonna run from who I am now, six sisters,
[21:13] Speaker 2: two brothers.
[21:13] Speaker 1: We was out there putting out some kids.
[21:17] Speaker 3: So a lot of you.
[21:19] Speaker 4: Stonians actually have a similar story. Their families are from
[21:22] Speaker 4: East Texas or West Louisiana, and Freedom colonies are all
[21:26] Speaker 4: throughout that region, so you probably are more familiar with
[21:30] Speaker 4: these places then.
[21:32] Speaker 3: You know.
[21:32] Speaker 2: You know, first of all, I don't want to You
[21:34] Speaker 2: came came on my show to talk about dance. Now
[21:37] Speaker 2: we've gotten into cultural history and I'm I'm really zero
[21:41] Speaker 2: in on this because I'm being educated and I'm mad.
[21:45] Speaker 2: I was getting mad Stacey when I don't know what
[21:48] Speaker 2: I should know, And it really tells me a lot
[21:52] Speaker 2: about the education system that we have in this world.
[21:57] Speaker 1: I denied you.
[21:58] Speaker 2: I believe important from me and the fact that I
[22:03] Speaker 2: and I'm kind of sadden. I'm saddened by the information
[22:06] Speaker 2: you're giving me because you know, I'm.
[22:08] Speaker 1: Just one person. But what can I do? You know?
[22:10] Speaker 2: But I think that this mouthpiece that I've become in
[22:14] Speaker 2: money Making Conversations master Class allows me to hopefully through
[22:19] Speaker 2: curiosity people who are listening to this interview will not
[22:23] Speaker 2: only contact you about your Nia's Daughter's movement collective, but
[22:28] Speaker 2: also about these freedom collectives that are out there that
[22:34] Speaker 2: nobody knows about.
[22:35] Speaker 1: And I have to say that nobody knows.
[22:37] Speaker 4: Talking about dance to me is talking about history. That's
[22:40] Speaker 4: the purpose of why we do this. Education is the
[22:43] Speaker 4: core of why we do this. We do it through arts,
[22:45] Speaker 4: educational programming, programming through the community, programming through the schools,
[22:49] Speaker 4: and also performances. And this is why. So this is
[22:53] Speaker 4: actually what I like to see happen. People learn a
[22:57] Speaker 4: little bit more about themselves, a little bit more about
[23:00] Speaker 4: this surroundings by engaging you.
[23:02] Speaker 1: Know you you you're just a teacher, that's all. You're
[23:05] Speaker 1: a teacher. You're an educator. That's what you're doing. You're
[23:08] Speaker 1: an educator.
[23:09] Speaker 2: You know I'm gonna teach something. Couldn't I stop you, Stacy.
[23:14] Speaker 2: Your mama couldn't stop, your daddy couldn't stop, your husband
[23:16] Speaker 2: can't stop you.
[23:17] Speaker 1: I can't stop you, because just in hearing you, I
[23:21] Speaker 1: want to know more. I'm gonna tell you something. Stay.
[23:25] Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on my show. First of all,
[23:28] Speaker 1: you know you make me mad because what I do.
[23:34] Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you so I remember in college when
[23:37] Speaker 2: I was I took my degree is in mathematics, right,
[23:41] Speaker 2: and my minders in sociology, and I took a black
[23:44] Speaker 2: sociology course, and if I had to do it all
[23:48] Speaker 2: over again, I would have got my degree of sociology
[23:51] Speaker 2: because it changed my life.
[23:52] Speaker 1: It changed my perspective.
[23:53] Speaker 2: It maybe realized how much information I didn't know about
[23:57] Speaker 2: the culture of that I was born into, because the
[24:01] Speaker 2: information that they shared with me was is only at
[24:04] Speaker 2: even one percent. And so this interview angers me because
[24:11] Speaker 2: I'm sitting here trying to say, how can I share
[24:13] Speaker 2: this story to so many people, so many thousands of people,
[24:18] Speaker 2: because you are a blessing, young lady.
[24:20] Speaker 1: You are blessing. Do not stop.
[24:23] Speaker 2: I mean, if it's a wall up, then you run
[24:26] Speaker 2: through that wall.
[24:27] Speaker 1: Okay. And you have a friend in Rashaan McDonald.
[24:31] Speaker 2: Okay, I'm an interroy that we can get to make
[24:34] Speaker 2: sure my oldest sister, I'm a caller and tell her
[24:37] Speaker 2: about you. She's the Freedom town. She's always doing things
[24:40] Speaker 2: down there. She's just like you. She she's always sharing information,
[24:45] Speaker 2: she always uplifted, she's always educating, and she's a blessing.
[24:50] Speaker 1: And as my oldest sister Carolyn, but you.
[24:54] Speaker 2: Are a blessing young lady. I'm so happy you contacted
[24:58] Speaker 2: us in a lot the privilege of interviewing you.
[25:02] Speaker 1: Thank you, Stacy, thank you, thank you so much.
[25:06] Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure.
[25:08] Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
[25:12] Speaker 2: posted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
[25:15] Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you our listening to
[25:17] Speaker 2: the audience now. If you want to listen to any
[25:19] Speaker 2: episode I want to be a guest on the show,
[25:22] Speaker 2: visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money
[25:26] Speaker 2: Making Conversation. Join us next week and remember to always
[25:29] Speaker 2: leave with your gifts.
[25:31] Speaker 1: Keep winning.

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