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Choreographer Hope B. Byers on the creative process behind ‘1868: Liberation and the Everlashing’

Award-winning choreographer Hope B. Byers' new work, "1868: Liberation and the Ever Lashing," explores the complex legacy of the Reconstruction era. Courtesy: Full Circle Dance Company/Credit: Brion McCarthy.
Award-winning choreographer Hope B. Byers' new work, "1868: Liberation and the Ever Lashing," explores the complex legacy of the Reconstruction era. Courtesy: Full Circle Dance Company/Credit: Brion McCarthy.

Think what life was like in the Deep South, a few years after the Civil War, for those who had been enslaved. Poverty was the norm —maybe there was no work, maybe backbreaking work not much different than before the war, now at a desperately low wage. But what were the opportunities for the newly freed? What were the hopes?

Full Circle Dance Company helps us imagine that moment in history and its implications today in a new work that will premiere Sunday, Nov. 3, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, with the theme “From the Source of Our Power.”

This particular work, choreographed by Hope B. Byers, is titled: “1868: Liberation and the Everlashing.” We ask Byers about the process of researching and creating this dance.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Maureen Harvie is Senior Supervising Producer for On the Record. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and joined WYPR in 2014 as an intern for the newsroom. Whether coordinating live election night coverage, capturing the sounds of a roller derby scrimmage, interviewing veterans, or booking local authors, she is always on the lookout for the next story.