February 13, 2025

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Save the Last Dance: Muse 360’s Fundraiser for a New Home

On a trip with her students to St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Christmas was motivated by the resilience of the Gullah people, African American descendants of people liberated from slavery who have managed to retain a exclusive creole culture and restricted-knit enclave through a extended heritage of residence ownership and accords amongst neighbors. Citing the absence of suburban sprawl, gentrification, and chain retailers that mar so a great deal of the New South, the group struck her as a model that must be imported up north.

In a way, she sees Muse 360’s separation from its prolonged-time Howard Street home as a serendipitous stage in direction of the intention of completely owning and directing her have room that can be passed down to upcoming generations of creatives.

“I feel about ownership in techniques that will develop easier pathways for the long term, since right now—renting from this area and that put, you gotta do what you can,” Christmas states. “But if you can essentially take on the problem of owning a room and you have the skillset to do so, or you have the support to do so, I’d say that that is the way for us to go. It is not that I imagine in capitalism to that extent—but I consider that for me, possessing area appropriate now is not about producing quadruple quantities of funds off folks that seriously just can’t find the money for it. But if we all shift our way of thinking to possessing, then who can kick us out? Us becoming creatives, and us becoming cultural staff and artists, that is fantastic! We appreciate that! We love staying innovative. We adore it, but which is not gonna get us any place if we really don’t feel about areas to plant our roots.” 

As an significant phase in building this new future for Muse 360, Xmas is optimistic her community will switch out this weekend to aid the transfer to a permanent home, all although celebrating everything that has been accomplished in their outdated a person.

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Emblem Structure by Mikea Hugley

WE DID THAT! kicks off at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 11, with a cocktail reception, followed by a 7 p.m. screening of the event’s eponymous hour-prolonged documentary. The evening will shut out with dwell performances, tunes, and dance until eventually 11 p.m. Sliding-scale tickets are readily available on Eventbrite.

The Eubie Blake Cultural Center is situated at 847 N. Howard Road in the Bromo Seltzer Arts District.