Reimagine Black Death: A Requiem For Our Suffering

Reimagine Black Death was born in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder.

So many of us watched the video of his murder. What I was seeing was not only the death of a man. I was witnessing a public lynching unfold in real time. After seeing that horrific video, I wondered where those images lived within my body, what my spirit holds, and what histories continue to live within us long after they have passed from public view.

What began as grief for George Floyd soon became a confrontation with grief itself. His murder opened a doorway into losses I had not fully acknowledged—personal grief, ancestral grief, collective grief, and the accumulated weight of sorrows I had learned to carry without tending to them. I found myself asking what happens when grief remains unspoken, unexpressed, or isolated from community.

Reimagine Black Death emerged from that questioning.

Rooted in the understanding that healing happens in community, the work uses sacred sound, movement, ritual, and collective gathering to create spaces where grief can be witnessed, honored, and shared. Through requiems, grief sanctuaries, memorial offerings, and site-specific acts of witness, the project invites us to sit with what hurts while remaining open to remembrance, imagination, connection, and care.

At its core, Reimagine Black Death is not about death alone. It is about our relationship to loss, memory, transformation, and the possibility that what appears to end may continue in forms beyond what we can see. It is an ongoing practice of remembrance expressed through requiems, grief sanctuaries, and site-specific acts of witness. It is an ongoing practice of remembrance and a commitment to creating spaces where people can gather, grieve, remember, and heal together.

Guest Artists:

Annette Daniels Taylor (Poet), Sirgourney Cook (Opera Singer), Chicago Singers (from L to R): Angela Walton, Tracie Williams, Alfred Golden, Nikita Gadson, Stephanie Higgins Garrett

Musicians:

Carl “Flute” Johnson (drums), Alassane Sarr (African Drums), Pete Rodriguez (Congas), Chuck Brown (Bass guitar), Harper Sinclair (guitar)

Dancers Led by Robin Hibbert (Choreographer/Chant):

Roxy Harris, Natasha Perkins, Megan Rakeepile, Syedah Sabir, Also Yanava Hawkins

VIP/MERCH/BACKSTAGE/Additional Support:

Brittany Bella Fletcher, Kelly Galloway, Girl Gang Entertainment LLC, Brittney McDonald-Allen, And all of their team members, C.E. Eaton (MUA), Phylicia Dove (My Wardrobe), Elijah (video), Ozzy (video), @themelaninblossom (Photography), The Challenger News, Celeste Lawson (Dancers Wardrobe)

Mental Health Support:

Felicia Stanley, Tee Carr, Reina Ryan, Ashley Watson, Tonja Newkirk and Mona Lisa, Alkeme

And to IMAN Central via This Love Thing and the staff and volunteers at Shea’s 710 Theatre.

Drea d’Nur used her own piano from home, a familiar tool for channeling and worshipping, for this offering.

Guest Artists include D’Nur’s daughter, Sehrea N’dayu (vocalist), Megan Rakeepile (dancer), Natanya Thompson (dancer), Griffin Brady (drum/sound), and Buffalo NY’s First Poet Laureate/Emmy Award-winning, Jillian Hanesworth (Spoken Word Artist).

Guest Artists include Frank McComb (Featured Vocalist/Musician), D’Nur’s daughter, Sehrea N’dayu (vocalist), Zhanna Reed (vocalist).

Musicians: Daniel “DP” Powell (drums), Drew Kemp (upright bass), Jed Thompson (guitar), Elise Russell (keyboard).

Photo Credit: Kalvin Booker/Through His Lens Photography