orange by The Moving Company

Orange! Stories of play and joy

Orange! Stories of Play and Joy is a series of weekly play-shops between the Diaspora Center teen group and artists from The Moving Company. This project is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

PARTICIPATING TEENS FROM DIASPORA COMMUNITY SERVICES

Visquel Bourbon Oniel Craig Rolanda Delma Justin Durrant Juleanna Francois Prince James Harry Jameel John France Leazard Joshua Lovell Tyiera Newland Briyana Reets Keshona Sylvester Kiara Timms Tigani Vernon

Visquel

P. 13

Oniel

P. 14 3

was named after a famous baseball player. For him, euphoria is a feeling caused by something that makes you happy. He feels euphoria in the baseball field, and on the bas ketball court, when he senses the tension inside those arenas. Euphoria, he told me, is something you feel inside yourself — it is not gendered, meaning, it is can be experienced equally by all humans. He knows a girl, for instance, who has trouble com municating, but she too loves basket ball. On the court, she’s in her element. She probably feels euphoria like Visquel, and this enables her to com municate. She can communicate, he wagered to me, because she feels happy. Visquel also admires athletes like Russell Westbrook from the Okla homa City Thunder basketball team. Westbrook is a unique person, he dis plays no negativity, and channels any aggression towards positive ends. Visquel admits he misbehaves in class regularly, but strives to spread more positive vibes. Self improvement… to the point of getting tired, that’s the proof. Creole vs. Creole vs. patwa vs. english. I carry your smile, I carry it with me

in my smile. Oranges are orange so as to say: “come eat me.” Rolanda

surrounded by family. We stay all day and live all night. This is partially true and partially the dream: I remember this joy when I’m dreaming. Things are what they are because of what our eyes perceive them to be. We are told what things are and we trust that. And there is more to it all, also. There is always more.

INTERVIEWER

I have down here, “the color orange tastes like trees.” ROLANDA

No, I said the color orange smells like trees, and it tastes like autumn. INTERVIEWER

P. 15

Oh, okay, sorry, by the way, can we sing the rest of the interview? ROLANDA

Sure, but just so you know, we’ve both been singing this whole time. Justin

P. 16

Euphoria: a feeling of happiness. An unusual feeling. Out of this world: you’ve never felt it before. I feel euphoric when I’m running. When I’m running, I know how well I’m doing in life, and how well I’m going to do in life. I see it all laid out in front of me — everything is just there. I see living on my own. I see raising my own family. I see my car, my neighborhood, all the clothes I want. I see snacks. I see sunlight. Also. I feel great when I’m sleeping. I’m not aware of my surroundings: I go on adventures. Euphoric adventures. I remember my dreams. There is a dream that is like déjà vu: I am in Coney Island. The sun is the brightest. I am

Prince James Harry

No body for euphoria, meaning eupho ria lives nowhere in particular in the body, and it is [therefore?] Not gendered. At the same time, we’re addicted to life over here. For instance, just a couple weeks ago, my face started to hurt from laughing too much, it was with friends, an un-ending laughing circle between us, just hanging out.

Juleanna

is a young poet who writes about love loss and guilt from the perspective of a Brooklyn teenager. Asking big questions about life and relationships, she writes with wisdom and sincerity about her emotions, sometimes imagining herself as another person. Optimism is guiding Juleanna’s search for joy and meaning without avoiding the mundane, stressful of the everyda — paying the bills, graduating

P. 17

Like an impending doom waiting to strike true A glooming heart waiting to beat right just one last time

high school — but charging them with power and determination. WHAT IS SADNESS IN THE EYES OF A LOVER?

What is sadness in the eyes of a lover? Is it the wretched feeling of a broken heart? The betrayal of pain leaking through a wound? Perhaps, the ultimate loneliness of it all? Can it be the guilt built up over time slowly breaking down ones’ being? Or the unsatisfying desire to reach a blinding light? Only to find an empty shell of regret you’ve buried yourself in. Maybe it’s the pain Maybe it’s the fear Of giving way too many chances and Succumbing to your envious ways That depressing aura choking you from the inside out Preventing you from speaking loud Maybe it’s a facade Maybe it’s you Sadness in the eyes of a lover Oh so casually is a plead for help

Jameel

P. 18

France

P. 19

Petitio Principii: if my dj persona himself had a dj persona, this could be his name. The flow state is found by putting others in a flow state. A lot of culture, a lot of art is about the audience being put in a flow state by seeing the artist in a flow state. This begs the question! I want you to know: Life can take a strong turn and changes everything. And: euphoria lives in my heart and in my laugh. In my heart because: when you’re happy, your heart doesn’t feel heavy. You don’t feel any pressure on you at all. You don’t even feel like you’re breathing. Happy is a lightness that is a continuous flow. In my laugh because: I like to laugh. I laugh very well when I am with people I care about. I laugh loud, and laugh long. Everyone can experience a deep joy. Deep joy is individual, which means it is different for everybody. It has to do with the soul. My soul is very compli cated. I feel like my soul changes every day. It matures. Sometimes it becomes childish: it changes depending on

how I feel, what I’m doing, who and how I am. I feel my soul when I write. When I write, it feels as if no time is passing. I make movies with words, and when I can’t get them down or out fast enough, my head hurts. If I don’t get those movies out of my mind with language, they stay there and will be gin playing on an endless loop. Ideas build on top of ideas and I have to lay them out. More ideas pop from that ground: endless, polished. A whole new chapter begins again. I’m just lis tening to the words, deciphering. This is a little different from playing music, which is a little different from hearing music. Playing music, you feel it inside of your body. When you listen to music, you feel it outside, you think about it. When you play music, you are thinking about it in a different level inside your body: you’re feeling it. It vibrates you. It vibrates your soul. Everything circles round and round: life changes. Life changes. Joshua

P. 20

Did you know: self-love is the first love. I want to be a better me than I was yesterday. A better me tomorrow. People self-destruct trying to find themselves in other people while they themselves don’t understand what they like, what they love, what they need. They attempt

to mold themselves to be the perfect person for somebody else. But you have to know yourself before you get to know anybody else. You’re supposed to be your first friend. Happiness is so simple. You have to think happiness. Otherwise it drags, you drag, life drags. You have to think euphoria: you have to think it throughout your whole body. In your heart, in your mind. All over. Taking my cast off, for example: it feels unimaginable and good to be in my body. Just being able to move my fingers now makes me ecstatic. Relieved. Un-anxious. Calm. Other peoples’ laughter is also a happiness for me. The energy and aura shifts inside a room when we are all connected with laughter. Even if the seed itself isn’t funny, laughter blooms in me. Oranges. The color orange: a vibrant burst of energy. Orange is a splash in your face, a warm feeling. I connect orange to the sun. Tyiera

How would an occupational therapist perform professional duties on a philosopher or a kid? The former by consulting descartes and the latter by consulting play-doh? … President of the student body; the body comes up again during track, even

after track — a lot of commitment is commitment to abstain. speaking of abstention, it’s often a topic when counseling the kids. Briyana

Keshona

P. 21

For myself, for my own self: I pray. Pray ing is a way for me to speak to God. And to my grandma. Praying gives me closure. I tend to pray a lot. I pray when I get up, when I get in the car. I pray when I get to school. I pray at home when I walk back in the door. I thank God for bringing me back home safely: I’ve done this ever since I was small. And. Euphoria. I feel euphoria in my temples — and it flows down from those two points. We all feel euphoria, maybe in different parts of our bodies. I like to shop. I like to clean. I like to budget and save. I don’t like being messy because it makes me feel like my mind is in a mess. I clean to let things go. I let it all go. is an artist who is addicted to listening to music. She loves to have one headphone in her ear, channeling old school R&B or Drake while she concentrates on her surroundings. Eu phoria, for Keshona, is akin to excite ment. She felt euphoric when she was given a job interview and woke up excited that morning, eager to make

a good impression and land a part-time gig. She says we all experience eu phoria about the same things, regard less of our identities; we feel it from life events, and we all want the same happiness. For her, happiness comes from laughter, and she has a friend at school who makes her laugh by cracking jokes, making fun faces, and not taking life seriously. She feels happiness when she gets a good grade, when she goes shopping for new clothes and receives positive attention. When Keshona is drawing, she feels control over what is happening on the paper. Her goal is to please herself with her work and she’s not concerned about what others think. Those mo ments when she’s drawing or painting, or even when she’s concentrating on an assignment in class, she can lose all track of time. Kiara

P. 22

Euphoria lives and stays in my heart. I like to make other people happy. I laugh a lot. If I’m with a group of people and somebody pass gas, it’s weird but funny at the same time. I try to be seri ous in those moments but I bust out laughing. When I’m walking and I trip I laugh at myself. I’d be lying if I said I prayed every day. I used to pray to God for stupid stuff, like: God could you

please make this boy like me? Now I’m more mature. I do things for myself. Things I do for myself: I buy myself stuff. I got my nails done a lot. They’re off now. I’m a chill person. I like to look pretty. I like to have fun. And when I have fun: time goes by really fast. When you have something keeping you occupied, time goes by mad fast, you not paying at tention to the time. When you pay atten tion to the time, time goes slow.

Orange! Stories of Play and Joy is a series of weekly play-shops between the Diaspora Center teen group and artists from The Moving Company. The project culminated with a performance at teen-night at the Brooklyn Museum in which the teens made their own inflatables, costumes and dance moves.

DIASPORA COMMUNITY SERVICES Carine Jocelyn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vanessa Mejia, PhDc, MPH, CLC, Agency Staff Kyle Everage, MPH, MSEd, MBAc, Senior Health Educator THE MOVING COMPANY Rebecca Pristoop Tina Wang Annabel Paran Nathan Albright Laura Bernstein Tamar Ettun ORGANIZED BY Tamar Ettun Laura Bernstein GUEST WRITERS Amy Zion Christina Olivares Carlos Jimenez Cahua PHOTOGRAPHER Charlie Rubin BROOKLYN MUSEUM Lindsay C. Harris, BkM Teens Programs Manager Zaria Weekes Isaiah Lewis Anna Kinlock, BkM Teens, LGBTQ Teen Night representatives Julieta Salgado, BkM Photographer DESIGN Other Means