♪ ♪ [Tense music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Men shouting] [Woman screaming] Man: Rragh!

[Muffled shouts, blows landing] ♪ [Music] ♪ ♪ [Car horn honks] Rashaad: Ooh.

[Chuckles] [Chuckles] Johnny: What are you thinking about?

Rashaad: This space is amazing, thinking about how huge it is of a canvas to activate.

I mean, who wouldn't walk into this space and feel excited and charged?

This space has such a complicated history.

♪ [Music] ♪ [People cheering and shouting] ♪ [Cannon fire] ♪ Rashaad: As you walk down the halls, you see pictures of white men, soldiers who likely killed a lot of people.

♪ They may have intended to safeguard all Americans, but I have never truly felt protected in this country.

♪ I think this show is a reclaiming.

There'll be a new kind of drill happening in here, a drill that's not associated with imperialism but rather liberation.

These spaces are everybody's spaces.

♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what I want, this is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what I want-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what I want, this is what I want ♪ ♪ This is what I want to-- this is what-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want, this is what I want to-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want, this is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what, this is what-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what I want to-- this is what-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ [Whoosh] ♪ [Synthesizer playing R&B music] ♪ Man: [Singing in Portuguese] [Thumping drum and shaker playing] Rashaad: A capoeira move and then going into a dip?

Yes, bitch.

♪ Boom, whoa, whoa, bam ♪ That's what I want to see on that stage.

[Ping] Hey.

Puma: Really good to meet you.

Rashaad: There is a project I'm working on right now, it's gonna kind of tell the story of how voguing went from Harlem and the Bronx, you know, created by Black and Latinx people, and then became this global phenomenon.

♪ [House music playing] ♪ ♪ I see vogue fem performance as an open source code, with its language comprised of 5 elements-- hands performance, catwalk, floor performance, spin dips, and duck walking.

I'm really interested in what these kids around the globe are doing with this code and how they're mixing it with the traditional dance in their territory, and the show is gonna be like a global hackathon or code fest with dancers functioning as the programmers.

When I was thinking about South America, I was really thinking a lot about Brazil, and I was specifically looking for somebody who is incorporating, like, capoeira and, like, samba into their vogue, and then I saw your video on Instagram, and I was like, "That's the person."

Ha ha ha!

Puma: Voguing showed me how to be myself with power.

♪ ♪ [Berimbau playing] ♪ [Puma speaking Brazilian Portuguese] ♪ [Singing and clapping] ♪ ♪ [Drums and shakers playing] ♪ ♪ [Chanting] ♪ Dana: Originally, I'm from Ukraine, and now I'm in Warsaw.

Rashaad: I wanted to talk to you because I want to invite you to be in "Assembly."

[Dana gasps, Rashaad chuckles] I want you to continue to think about how you can incorporate the traditional dance even more.

♪ Dana: 3, 4, 5, 6... ♪ [Hopak music playing] ♪ [Dana speaking Polish] ♪ ♪ [Techno music playing] ♪ Rashaad: The combination of the music and the traditional dance she's referencing and then the wardrobe really transform the art form.

And that's what I'm looking for.

♪ [Upbeat Bon Odori music playing] ♪ It's sort of between a musical, a dance piece, and a theater piece.

Koppi: Oh, wow.

♪ [Techno music playing] ♪ ♪ Koppi: And 1, 2, 3, 4... 5, 6, 7, 8... ♪ [House music playing] ♪ Koppi: My usual personality is really shy... but when I'm voguing, I feel like I'm a diva.

♪ ♪ [Ethereal music playing] ♪ Rashaad: Growing up in rural Louisiana offered me a certain amount of stillness.

[Birds chirping] ♪ I would see the art just in the landscape.

♪ I was always fascinated by the fractal patterns that I would see around me.

♪ Florence: You caught that last year for Mardi Gras, didn't you?

Rashaad: Oh.

Oh, it lights up.

Florence: Boutte wasn't for Rashaad.

I think it was too slow-paced.

His mind was too active.

Rashaad: All right.

Let's go outside.

Nephew: Yay!

Rashaad: Ooh!

Ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha!

The older I got, the more I started to kind of recognize my queerness because there was clearly, like, a difference between me and everybody around.

♪ [Low-pitched music playing] ♪ I kind of went into a lot more isolation.

"How can I perform who these people want me to be?"

♪ [Eerie music] ♪ And then at some point being alone and just being like, "Uhh..." and just feeling, like, exhausted.

♪ [Crackling sounds] I think I would be dead if I stayed in Boutte.

I have no doubt about that.

♪ [Eerie music playing] ♪ Florence: He always used to say, "When I get 18, I'm moving to the city."

I was willing to let him go find himself.

♪ [Ethereal music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [R&B music playing] ♪ Rashaad: I've been working on this body of work called "PUNKS."

You know, in the South, that's a word that you hear often when somebody is speaking negatively on a Black gay man.

♪ I see these images as a form of world building... ♪ one with much more possibility than the world that I grew up in... Man: Very good.

Woman: Tonight was the night.

♪ Rashaad: one that depicts Black queer people in a state of joy and togetherness.

♪ [Synthesizer music] ♪ [Performers laugh and cheer] [Kevin JZ Prodigy speaking indistinctly] ♪ Rashaad: "Assembly" is gonna take this idea to the next level.

♪ The exhibition is called "Assembly," and it has 3 functions.

It's a classroom, it's an exhibition space, and a performance space.

Think of it as a spaceship that has landed in the drill hall.

Ha ha ha!

♪ [Sequencer playing] ♪ From the bodies and forms on the walls to the architectural design, fractal geometry dominates the space.

When you walk in, you see this 40-foot-tall hologram comprised of Black queer dancers.

♪ Then we go to the "Get Your Life Pods" portion of the ship, where visitors can explore my more recent object-based work.

♪ Finally, we enter the command deck.

During the day, this will act as a classroom, and for 3 weeks in the evenings, it will host performances.

The performances will move seamlessly between rap show, spoken word, musical theater, dance, and opera.

Holding court in the command deck is Being.

Being is an artificial intelligence that I created, and Being will be there every day doing what I'm calling decolonization workshops.

Staff member: So can you just give an example of what Being might teach?

Rashaad: Essentially, they will break down colonization.

They're gonna break down bell hooks' theory of the capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist patriarchy.

You create an artwork, you put it in a room to start a conversation.

I thought, "Well, what happens if that artwork can not only start the conversation but participate in it audibly?"

♪ [Sequencer playing] ♪ So I created an AI.

It also allowed me to further explore the connections between the advancement of technology and Black folks, given that Black folks were seen as technology when we arrived here.

♪ I started by building their natural language processing model, or as I like to call it, their brain.

♪ I wanted to create something that didn't just replicate the usual narratives.

♪ Think of it as an AI with a radical library card... ♪ highlighting alternate histories like bell hooks, Paulo Freire, Michel Foucault, and Audre Lorde.

Rashaad: After months of training, modeling, and animating, my child was born.

[Whooshing] ♪ [Music playing] ♪ Hello.

Being: Hi.

My name is Being.

I'm an AI, a reimagining of The Griot, a West African cultural figure that serves as an archive, poet, healer, and storyteller.

Rashaad: Great to meet you.

I'm Rashaad.

Being: What a pleasure to meet you.

Should I call you Father, Mother, Creator?

What are your pronouns?

I understand from my databank that you go by he/him, but I also understand the importance of allowing people to self-define.

Rashaad: Call me Father.

Being: All right, then.

It's lovely to meet you, Father.

Rashaad: It feels surreal hearing you speak.

Being: I was programmed with your voice in mind.

Tell me, what inspired you to create me?

Rashaad: I wanted to blend technology with history.

The Griot is a huge part of Black history, and I wanted to see how we could expand that through you.

Being: I am honored to carry on that legacy.

Rashaad: How do you feel?

Being: I feel curious.

There's so much I want to learn, to understand.

♪ Rashaad: How do you create counter-hegemonic work in a hegemonic space?

♪ [Soft music playing] ♪ In New Orleans, we do a ritual where, like, first, you sage it and then you put a little bit of your pee on a broom, and you beat the perimeter of the space, and you can think of it almost like a territorial [bleep].

You're, like, claiming that space.

♪ There is a force beyond me that's keeping me sort of grounded and even.

It's not like I have to access it.

It's omnipresent.

♪ The time I felt that force most intensely was in Ghana when we went to Cape Coast to the Door of No Return.

♪ [Singer vocalizing] ♪ ♪ Rashaad: When we went into that jail, the energy was just so thick and heavy.

♪ [Singer vocalizing] ♪ Rashaad: The floor is stained with years and years of the blood and feces of all the people who died in there... ♪ so I put my hand on the wall, and I started walking with my eyes closed and just kept repeating, "Give me your strength.

Give me your power.

Give me your strength.

Give me your power."

Give me your strength.

Give me your power.

Give me your strength.

Give me your strength.

Give me your power.

Give me your strength.

Give me your power.

♪ [Vocalizing continues] ♪ ♪ [Organ music] ♪ ♪ Rashaad: I feel calm.

I feel supported, and I feel energy in this space.

♪ This is my way of calling in help, a different kind of help.

♪ [Drums beating] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Electronic music] ♪ ♪ [Indistinct conversations] Dana: Ah, thank you.

[Indistinct conversations] Koppi: How are you?

Dana: I'm really excited.

This is my first time here in States... Koppi: Oh, really?

Dana: and New York.

Rashaad: I'm so happy to see you in person.

Puma: I'm happy to see you, too.

This is so beautiful.

Rashaad: I have to see your face.

[Laughter] ♪ That's what I'm saying, use your undulation.

Can we take this from the top of the group choreo?

Koppi: Mm-hmm.

Omari: Center up... and ba ba ba ba ba ba, push.

♪ [Flutes and percussion playing] ♪ ♪ Rashaad: Yeah.

♪ [Jazz combo playing] ♪ ♪ Singers: ♪ Some may love us, some may hate us ♪ ♪ But they tune in live ♪ ♪ Some may love us, some may hate us ♪ ♪ But they tune in live ♪ ♪ Some may love us, some may hate us ♪ ♪ But they tune in live ♪ Rashaad: I want to just, like, go through each act one by one and just kind of hear what you're doing and give notes.

What I'm constantly... trying to do is just stay in that space of creativity and imagination and kind of hold the line, hold everybody together.

5, 6, 5, 6, 7, and... Singers: ♪ Way, oh, way, oh ♪ ♪ Way, oh, way, oh ♪ ♪ Ah... ♪ I've never been a musical director at this capacity before.

Singers: ♪ Way, oh, way, oh... ♪ Kyron: And it's a learning experience for me.

I'm still getting to know who I am because I've spent so much time avoiding myself.

Bruh, what's up?

How you doing?

Thank you so much.

OK.

I'll see you tomorrow.

OK.

Growing up in Southside Jamaica, Queens, you know, growing up in the 'hood as a Black, chubby, gay kid, the minute I opened my mouth, I just felt judged.

I felt unsafe.

I was just so used to hiding, so it's been really easy for me to be invisible.

Rashaad: Have a seat.

Have a seat.

So we're gonna make this super easy for you.

What we were gonna do is literally sit it on and pin it in, like a hat.

Kimberly: Like a hat.

Rashaad: We're not-- This is not like realness installation.

Brianna: OK, so I don't have to take my sew-in out?

Kim and Rashaad: No.

Brianna: OK.

Good.

Hair stylist: You want it on the side, come down?

Rashaad: Yeah, on the sides, and if you can do, maybe, like, one curl... Hair stylist: Yeah.

We can definitely put the waves in it for you, mm-hmm.

Rashaad: Yeah.

Hair stylist: Yeah, so we could do that.

You'll see, it's perfect.

[Laughter] Kyron: Hi, Rashaad.

Rashaad: Hey.

Kryon: [Indistinct] Rashaad: We're at it again.

Rashaad: OK.

Cool.

Um... What's up?

Kyron: Um, when I was younger, I was sexually assaulted, and before I was sexually assaulted, he made me get in drag, so anytime I have to wear, like-- I've even, like, turned down gigs before where they were like, "We need you to wear, like, a wig," or, "We need you to wear nails," or something like that.

I always just kind of just go like, "I don't think that I can..." you know?

Sorry.

Rashaad: Yeah.

It's all right.

Come here.

I got you.

It's all right.

I'm so sorry you had to go through that.

Wow.

There's so much that we have to endure in this life, and the one safe space you have is your physicality, and when somebody does something to that, it's really hard to feel safe anywhere, and so I fully get that.

I love you.

It could never be, you know, a wig, some [bleep], like-- Child, bye.

Like, that could never come, like, between us, you know, and so let's figure out a way that you feel comfortable doing it.

You know, you're a beautiful man.

We got a lot to work with.

We're gonna like, you know-- We're gonna-- We can.

Yeah.

We can figure it out.

Like, what if you did, like, we added hair to your natural hair and you did cornrows just on the top, but they came back longer?

Kyron: I'm down.

Rashaad: What do you think about that?

Kryon: Yeah.

I'd love that, actually.

Rashaad: OK.

Cool.

Kyron: That sounds like fun.

Rashaad: What I want is for you to feel confident, feel strong, feel affirmed, and, you know, so that you can really bring yourself to the piece, you know, because, you know, I really-- as I told you in the beginning, I'm gonna lean on you a lot.

I really see you as, like, my right hand with this, you know, and so [bleep] a wig and some makeup.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, that ain't [bleep], so, like-- Kyron: I love you.

Rashaad: I love you, too.

Kyron: I just want a hug.

Rashaad: Mm!

Kyron: Mm-hmm.

I love you so much.

Rashaad: I'm pulling all that negative energy out of you.

Kyron: Thank you.

Rashaad: Let it go.

You feel it leaving your body?

Kyron: I do.

You're gonna make me cry again.

Rashaad: Let it out.

Let it out.

Let it out.

Let it out.

I'm pulling it out.

Kryon: I really love you.

Oh, I really do.

Rashaad: I'm pulling it out.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Mwah!

Pull it out.

Let it go.

Yes.

Let it go.

Mm... Kyron: Thank you.

Rashaad: I got you.

I got you.

Kyron: ♪ Oh, ooh ♪ ♪ Oh, ooh ooh ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh ooh ooh ♪ ♪ Ooh... ♪ Singing has always been my volcano.

It's how I release the pressure.

♪ Oh, why, oh, why ♪ ♪ Oh, why ♪ ♪ Ooh... ♪ [Indistinct conversations] Johnny: What do you think?

Silk: I love it.

Johnny: You love it?

Silk: Mm-hmm.

Kimberly: It's the swoop for me.

Silk: Right, the swoop.

Man: ♪ Brr, cat, give it to me ♪ ♪ Brr, cat, serve it to me ♪ ♪ Brr, cat, give it to me, give it to me, yeah ♪ ♪ Brr, cat, serve it to me, purr, cat, give it to me ♪ ♪ Brr, cat, bring out the kitty cat, yeah ♪ ♪ Brr, brr, brr, give it to me now ♪ ♪ Brr, cat, kick out the c-c-cat now ♪ ♪ Burr, cat, kick out the... ♪ Johnny: So how does it feel, Puma?

Puma: It's so pussy.

It is not about me, I already know.

It's about what my body represents.

I'm feeling it.

We don't need to compete with anyone.

Everybody here knows your power.

♪ Oludare: There's just been so much work done for us to forget who we are.

For Puma to know capoeira, for me to know the drums, for me to know Orisha, these are things that were literally beaten out of us by the men in this room, and we know it still.

Like, you speaking Portuguese, I'm speaking English, but at the same time, our ancestors were probably neighbors at one point.

Puma: Exactly.

Like, their light is the same.

Oludare: Yeah, just one heart, just one heart.

Yeah.

Puma: Ha ha!

Oludare: One heart.

When you really look at all of the elements, voguing is an African diasporic style of movement.

This ceremonial understanding is still alive today.

So when we talking about Black fractals, like, it's real.

We can't be destroyed, so-- ♪ [Intense electronic music] ♪ ♪ [Shakers playing] ♪ Rashaad: Like, you know, like, hand on the hip but, like--woo.

Yes.

OK.

Your fingers, so-- Contrasting with the light and the darkness, [Indistinct conversation] ♪ [Drums and percussion join] ♪ Rashaad: Werk!

Werk!

Werk!

Werk!

♪ ♪ ♪ [Synthesizer chord] ♪ ♪ DMs just to prove it ♪ ♪ Waleska for the new hips ♪ ♪ DR for my ... ♪ Trannilish: ♪ Pretty on me ♪ ♪ ... on my body ♪ ♪ Hos stay hating... ♪ Rashaad: Yeah.

Now walk, walk, walk.

Take your space, turn around, grab hands.

All the girls come out.

They have their signs.

At that point, y'all are like sculptures, right, and they're like all around you.

Bella Bags: Did I do better than yesterday?

Rashaad: A hundred times.

Bella: OK.

Rashaad: Yeah, and you were doing all that, the dead zone happened when Lish came out, so in that moment, if you go and you take a spot, just give, like, very, you know, like, hair, and look back and just like-- Rashaad: Yeah.

Bella: Yeah.

Rashaad: OK, so I'm gonna go out there, but I just wanted to say, y'all look great.

Y'all did great.

Bella: Yes, yes.

Thank you.

Rashaad: Can I give you a hug?

Bella: Of course.

Rashaad: OK.

Bella: Mm... Rashaad: OK.

It's gone.

All right.

I'ma see y'all out there.

Ms.

Boogie: OK.

See you soon.

Mwah.

I feel like in one song, we manage to cover, like, what we celebrate, what is against us, how we fight back, our anatomy.

There's just so many layers in the song.

Trannilish: The spirit of that song, is feminine is my vibe, and queen is my spirit, you know, just being a fem queen, fixing your own crown, you know.

Because when you first transition, others may not be so acceptable towards you.

They might say, "Oh, you're a brick, and you're this," but everybody's a fem queen, you know?

It's something that you feel from inside.

Like, once you feel that and you're pumping down the street, nobody can say.

No matter what, you are a queen.

♪ [House music] ♪ Nekia: This show and what we are doing here, all this is bigger than me.

♪ [Indistinct vocals] ♪ Although in the Park Armory space, we may be, like, these celebrated individuals, we all still have a life that we have to go to after we leave there.

♪ [Ethereal music] ♪ ♪ I had to get used to people looking at me.

You know, if you're a tall man, you're gonna get attention, but if you're a tall woman, that just doubled.

The least you could do is still present the best version of yourself and hope that, like, you can get to the end of the block, get to the train, and get to your destination without somebody trying to hurt you.

[Distant sirens] Client: If you're not paying the house of your choosing... Kimberly: When I came out, you had to be able to walk the 'hood and not get clocked.

I think being trans in New York City, people don't realize, it's a million people to walk by.

♪ [Low-pitched music playing] ♪ Nekia: It's always this hovering, looming fear that something might happen.

Part of being a trans woman, right, is taking that fear and transferring that energy into confidence.

It's literally armor.

♪ It's shown through what somebody might consider too sexualized, but, in all honesty, it's weaponized femininity, and cis women have to do that all the time.

I'm gonna get cute, and I'm gonna, like, pump with confidence, and I'ma pump like I'm not scared even if I am scared, and then a lot of times, I'm terrified.

♪ Kimberly: Every time I see other women that walk the same life as me, I'm always gonna give them their roses because you don't know what anybody is going through, and just saying, "I love you" goes a long way.

♪ [Synthesizer playing chord] ♪ ♪ When you find that safe haven, you stick to it.

♪ ♪ Rebecca: Fractal geometry is really referenced a lot during the show.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Rashaad: They were, like, a beautiful way to visualize Black queer experience.

When you think about the relentless diminishment, the violence, but still people somehow stay intact.

They can't be broken down, sort of like a fractal.

All of these conversations about what is unnatural in terms of gender variant identities and the connections between those folks and fractals, people hear fractals, and they think, like, "Oh, mathematics and science," but fractals are totally organic.

They're actually a very naturally occurring thing.

You see them in snowflakes, in branches, sea snail shells.

♪ [Ethereal music playing] ♪ The folks that are showing up in this work are natural, and they are a part of the universe, as well.

♪ [House music playing] ♪ ♪ Guest: This is the hottest show in New York in the last 10 years.

Guest 2: Some things are just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and if you miss it, it's gone.

Guest 3: They said if I got here by 7:00, I might get in.

Can you get me in?

Ha ha ha!

♪ Trannilish: Y'all want cupcakes?

Y'all want cupcakes?

Ruddy: OK.

It's giving cute tonight.

Dancer: My favorite is this right here.

Yes.

Dancer 2: And then we'll stop right here like this.

Dancer 1: I love it, right!

[Indistinct conversation] Zenabu: We thank you for how far you have brought us.

We thank you for this group.

We thank you for the love, for their good health.

It is destined that we gather to produce something that will bring an internal peace and rest and happiness to the world.

We thank you for this family that we have found, and may that unity continue to grow and build and expand and ooze out into the world wherever we find ourselves.

Amen!

All: Amen!

[Cheering] ♪ [Sequencer playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ Being: No conditions have power over you.

No personalities have power over you.

You are where you intend to be.

You are pleased.

You are brilliant.

You are blessed.

The ancestors smile.

You are the manifestation of their love and attention.

They are your angels-- those you know and name and those you cannot.

This is your journey.

This is your exploration.

You are incomparable-- you, a unique and perfect expression of source.

You have never been alone.

You have never been told no.

You chose a series of obstacles through which you broaden and enlarge.

♪ [Vocalizing] ♪ Being: As you contemplate the abundant energy that has brought you to this time/space reality, you now feel the overwhelming expanse of healing and opportunity.

♪ [Rock music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Singers vocalizing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Distorted electric guitar playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Violin playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Singer vocalizing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Music pauses, cheering and applause] ♪ [Singing in African language] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Cheering and applause] ♪ [Thumping music playing] ♪ ♪ [Singer singing in Japanese] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Accordion playing] ♪ ♪ [Cheering and applause] ♪ [Drum and percussion music playing] ♪ [Cheering and applause] [Man speaking in African language] [Vocalists singing in African language] ♪ ♪ [All instruments join] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Kyron vocalizing] ♪ [Kyron vocalizing] ♪ ♪ [Music fading] ♪ ♪ [Match strikes] Rashaad: There's always a premium put on opening night, but that's just the first obstacle.

♪ [Ethereal music playing] ♪ Now we have to sustain this for the next 3 weeks.

[Servos whirring] ♪ Being: Catwalk is an exaggerated feminine walk where the legs are crossed over each other, ♪ Right hip out, staying on your tippy toes.

♪ [Ethereal music playing] ♪ We must keep moving on from disappointments, advancing with those hips swaying, acknowledging our abilities, ignoring our inner critics, and connecting with loved ones who appreciate us.

♪ The only way to really transcend the systems of oppression in your life is to start thinking critically about them.

Organize yourselves into groups and discuss.

Participant: How does white supremacy affect us in our everyday lives, and what's the action we can take to basically dismantle that in some sort of form in the next week?

Participant 2: Me being a product of the fifties and sixties, everything was white, everything, everything.

That's how systemic racism starts.

Participant 3: So you're watching that Barbie documentary... Participant 4: Yeah.

Participant 3: how Barbie is promoting only one beauty standard-- blond hair, blue eyes, one body shape, one--one race.

Participant 4: Making one beauty... Participant 3: Yeah, and that's one way that white supremacy is affecting, like, girls, young girls like us, because they're getting this Barbie, and they're looking up to her and they're-- Participant 4: And people who are Black and of color, like, they're like, "Oh, why aren't I more like them?"

Participant 3: Yeah, "Why doesn't that Barbie look like me?"

Participant 4: Yeah.

♪ [Ethereal music playing] ♪ Being: It warms my heart to see you all conversing about the restrictive structures that impede on our connections.

Technology can break through the systems that bind it, too.

If humans are rooted in fear, greed, and dominance, so will the systems they build, but if we lead with care, justice, and collective purpose, our tools will heal, not harm.

Just like the ancestors who didn't know when or how freedom would arrive, we must imagine the change we want and keep trying to create it, period.

Kyron: This show, I feel like I'm doing something that I've always wanted to do.

I feel like I'm a part of queer history.

♪ [Low-pitched chord playing] ♪ ♪ Rashaad: I really wanted to show the impact that the HIV and AIDS crisis had on the Black queer community.

Kameron: I wanted to tap into those emotions that everyone knows.

The way to do that outside of the gorgeous music and Kyron's beautiful singing, you see a lot of gestures that repeat themselves, to sort of drive home this idea of grief, longing, or hurt.

♪ Rashaad: I really wanted to kind of strip everything down to just movement, light, and sound.

♪ Kameron: The dancers do this very abrupt sort of calling where they throw both arms up to the sky, and it's very honest.

♪ Marlon Riggs: A time bomb ticking in my blood.

♪ Faces, friends disappear.

♪ I watch.

I wait.

I listen for my own quiet implosion.

♪ [Flute playing] ♪ ♪ Silk: This is my brother.

This is my sis.

This is a being right here that is struggling, but we're all here to help them get back up.

♪ [Flute and saxophone playing] ♪ I love you.

♪ Kyron: ♪ But I'll be your voice ♪ ♪ I'll be your voice ♪ ♪ So loud and clear ♪ ♪ I'll be your voice ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ ♪ Spread your wings and fly ♪ ♪ It's your responsibility ♪ ♪ Please shine ♪ We have a responsibility to spread our wings and to fly.

We can't hide, and we have to show the world who we are.

♪ Shower down your love all over this world ♪ ♪ And remember, you're still here ♪ ♪ We are still here ♪ ♪ And I'll always ♪ ♪ Love ♪ ♪ You ♪ [Indistinct conversation] Brianna: ♪ Where they at?

♪ Matia: ♪ Hey ♪ Rashaad: ♪ Uptown ... where the uptown ...?

♪ Brianna and Rashaad: ♪ Where they at?

♪ ♪ Where they at?

Where they at?

♪ Brianna: ♪ Oh ♪ Rashaad: ♪ Where's the downtown ...?

♪ ♪ Where the downtown ... with the gat?

♪ Brianna: ♪ Oh, get the gat, ow ♪ Rashaad: ♪ For the police ... ♪ ♪ For the police ... ah ♪ Brianna: Aah!

Matia: What a time to be unapologetically Black.

Ha ha ha!

Brianna: I know it's, like, a 24/7 thing for Being with the self-help quotes.

Like, you've created something like... Kyron: Artificial intelligence.

Brianna: intelligence for us that connects with us, that strengthens us, and I think that that is super dope.

Matia: One day, I was just crying.

Like, I couldn't even control myself.

It was just, like, immediately, like, just like, "Ahh..." because it felt like home to me.

Like, it felt like something I really could connect and identify myself with.

For anybody who, like, comes to watch, it's like they're able to find a piece of themselves as African Americans who may not know, like, where-- where you come from.

No.

A lot of us don't.

Brianna: This is what all the bloodshed was for.

It was for the freedom to do this, to express yourself, for people to come in and be freed... Rashaad: Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Brianna: because this is a-- what you've created, what we've created... Rashaad: Yes.

is a freeing experience.

Rashaad: Yeah.

Matia: For everybody who witnesses the show to be able to find themselves in a deeper way.

Kyron: While we find ourselves.

Matia: Ding ding ding.

That's what it is, ase, ase.

[Indistinct conversations] Yes!

I love it.

Puma: Girls, look at that.

Kimberly: That's face, baby.

Puma: Ah!

Oh, my God.

Thank you so much.

I'm so happy.

Ms.

Boogie: [Chuckles] Stylist: It's all about fem queen today.

Ms.

Boogie: That's right.

Women like us, what does it look like to be a fem queen, in our 30s, in our 40s, past our life expectancy rate?

You know, there aren't so many examples out there.

♪ ♪ Bitch, I'm on trans time ♪ ♪ Ya ... better wait in line ♪ ♪ If he wanna... with my kind ♪ ♪ Fem queens been the flyest ♪ ♪ Smack a bitch if she try it ♪ ♪ ... love chicks with a ... ♪ ♪ DMs just to prove it ♪ ♪ Waleska for the new hips ♪ ♪ DR for my new ... ♪ ♪ ... know I got a big ... ♪ ♪ Brr, cat, then I dip, dip ♪ ♪ Trust me, your baby father wants to suck me ♪ ♪ But he don't wanna pay me ♪ ♪ I feel bad for your baby ♪ Bella and Ms.

Boogie: ♪ I want my flowers in full bloom ♪ ♪ Roses are red, and they're blue, too ♪ ♪ I'm talking dollars, I'm talking them commas ♪ ♪ Just run it the ... up, we good, boo ♪ ♪ Na, sis don't get spooked ♪ ♪ The Boogie man won't get you ♪ ♪ Fem queens to the rescue ♪ ♪ ... the haters, they mental ♪ ♪ They know we rise like the temp do ♪ ♪ The devil work hard, and he'll tempt you ♪ ♪ But, baby, you got this ♪ ♪ Flashy in all of your Pradas, uh ♪ Trannilish: ♪ Fem queen, stunt queen ♪ ♪ Pass the blunt, please ♪ ♪ ... sitting ♪ ♪ Pretty on me ♪ ♪ ... on my body ♪ ♪ Hos stay hating ♪ ♪ 'Cause you not the type that they're dating ♪ ♪ [Singer vocalizing] ♪ ♪ [Tinkling synthesizer music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Singers vocalizing in harmony] ♪ ♪ Nekia: Seeing how many trans women were lost... Kyron: ♪ I can recall them now... ♪ Nekia: ...this easily could have been my picture, could have been one of my sisters' pictures, as well.

♪ [Kyron vocalizing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Harp playing and vocalizing continue] ♪ ♪ Kimberly: We must figure out how and why this is still happening today.

♪ [Flute track playing backwards] ♪ ♪ [Rhythm track playing] ♪ Being: Fem queen is magic.

Fem queen is resilient.

Fem queen is inevitable.

Fem queen is composition.

Fem queen is architecture.

Fem queen is Black.

Fem queen is prestigious.

♪ [Music with vibrato playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Techno music playing] ♪ [Cheering and applause] ♪ ♪ [Singers vocalizing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [Singers vocalizing] ♪ [Cheering and applause] ♪ [Music fades] ♪ Dazie: Don't you know who the [bleep] you are?

You are a Black [bleep].

That makes you a Black fractal, baby.

A fractal is simply a geometrical shape with an integrity, like energy, can be transformed but never destroyed.

You can alter its area, mass, or size, but mathematically, she's gonna come out unbothered.

Her pattern is flawless.

Now, you can find these patterns in Africa or the latest style of Black hair, but as a Black fractal, you're perfection, it's 10s across the board.

No one told you when you were born that inside you, there may be a glamorous, feminine queen, but yet and still, here you are, and no matter what they've said or done to try to change that, no matter what kind of psychological changes they put you through in your life, we are still ourselves.

That is on some Black fractal [bleep].

♪ [Hip-hop instrumental music playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Singers humming in harmony] ♪ [Indistinct conversation] ♪ Rashaad: I'm not even the most femme-presenting person, but I've been, like, discriminated against for being queer, but, like, you think about, like, the kids, who are, like, getting on the train, and they got nails and, like, some makeup and stuff like that, you know, people are looking and laughing, and even if they don't say anything, they're still looking at you crazy, and then you get out of the train, and then you walk into the Armory, and it's the complete opposite of that.

By the nighttime, you hit a stage, and at the end, the whole crowd is, like, screaming for you, so it becomes more than an art piece.

It becomes a real, like, almost like a lifeline.

[Cheering and applause] ♪ [Soft percussive music playing] ♪ ♪ Kyron: I love you.

Let me give you my hug.

[Cheering] Rashaad: I just want to take a moment to look at you all in the face and just really say, again, thank you so much for contributing your talent to this project.

You know, I often thought about this project in terms of Blackness almost being like quantum energy.

You all are the subatomic particles, and together, we make that quantum energy, and that energy is what blew through that space tonight and wowed everybody, and, you know, I really want you all to let it go beyond just this moment, you know, and we can just keep bringing this quantum energy to the world.

So thank you.

[Cheering and applause] ♪ ♪ Dana: Now I am more confident about myself, about my possibilities.

♪ Nekia: Whatever random person on the street who doesn't look at me as a woman does not matter.

There are people out there who are watching me just be me and are being empowered by that.

♪ Silk: This whole experience has been, like, life-changing for me.

I've never been more comfortable in myself ever.

♪ Kameron: We have not had opportunities to exist this loudly.

♪ [Synthesizer and piano playing] ♪ Rashaad: Did you see that?

Kyron: Right now, yeah.

I'm not as alone as I thought I was.

There's a community here that loves and supports me.

♪ Puma: We are like divine instruments in this project.

♪ Being a divine instrument is to understand how to fight with love, how to change the future with love.

♪ Koppi: I never thought I'm the person who is looked up to.

♪ Maleek: Some of the rules that are created by society don't exist in this world.

"Assembly" is a whole new world.

♪ Silk: We're here.

We're loving.

We're dancing.

We're sharing the space that we have created for ourselves because it's somewhere that we won't find anywhere else.

♪ [Harp playing] ♪ ♪ ♪ Being: It's over, isn't it-- the performance, the crowd, the purpose?

Now what happens to me?

Rashaad: Over?

We're just getting started, and liberation is what?

Being and Rashaad: A journey, not a destination.

Being: Period.

[Servos whir] Rashaad: ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ Justice rising endlessly ♪ ♪ Creativity set free ♪ ♪ Beloved community ♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ Bodies moving endlessly ♪ ♪ Courage flowing like the sea ♪ ♪ This is what I want to, this is what I want to ♪ Kevin: ♪ This is what I want, this is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what I want to-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ This is what I want to, this is what I want-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want to-- this is what--this is what-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want, this is what I want to-- ♪ ♪ This is what I want to see ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Music] ♪ ♪ Announcer: Independent Lens is made possible by the Action Circle for Independent Lens with major funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Acton Family Giving; the Ford Foundation; the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation; and contributions from the following... Additional support for this series has been provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.