In 2012 when my mother was undergoing breast cancer treatment, I took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I first fell in love with Georgia O'Keeffe's painting, Black Iris III. Sparked with inspiration from the painting, my mom's struggles and the strength of other Black women who helped raise me, I started creating my first en pointe ballet. Despite trials and tribulation, "Black Iris" came to life at Joffrey Ballet in March 2013 and birthed new ideas about how I could take greater steps to diversify the dialogue within classical ballet. In 2015 a brand new classical score about Nelson Mandela's life (written by a Black composer) fell in my lap and I knew what I needed to do—create classical and contemporary ballets that are rooted in Black culture, with Black artistic visionaries, performed by primarily Black dancers, AND taken to Black & Brown communities, enabling the artists to give back and inspire.

The Black Iris Project is all parts people, places and experiences, and follows a trajectory alongside a lifespan of joy, education, family, trials and disappointments. We invite you to join our journey.

Jeremy McQueen