Nick’s Reviews > A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance > Status Update

"I maybe do not love the moon as much as other poets, who seem to love the moon for what it is capable of doing to the waters, or how it seduces the best or worst out of an astrological sign. I don't know much about astrology, but I do like the idea of astrology for what it brings out in my most creative and magically inclined friends."

"Ellen Armstrong kept performing in smaller rooms, to crowds without as much money or social capital. The idea, it seemed, was about offering a sense of wonder to those who may otherwise have been denied it. To make something small spectacular. Magic relies on what a viewer is willing to see, and what a viewer is willing to see relies on what the world has afforded them to be witness to."

"In both the dance marathon and the Soul Train Line, I am in love with the performance of partnership, and the boundaries that performance is pushed to.... within their eyes remains the same frantic madness once in the eyes of Alma Cummings sitting with her feet in ice and her torn-through shoes. But also there is care, concern, fear. An affection born out of having to make a home out of the confines of dance..."