The world must be mindful of how we amplify melanated voices. I woke up this morning excited to share an article that Dance Magazine has written about me and my collaborative, The Black Iris Project. Instead, I am here to explain another valuable learning lesson as it pertains to media outlets who claim they want to share our stories and voices. But in reality, it turns into a prime example of efforts to control the Black voice and our honest narratives.
Dance Magazine has never once highlighted nor featured The Black Iris Project within the four years that we have been in existence. It took my personally reaching out to my college classmate, freelance writer and BIP supporter, Jen Peters, for a change to occur. Nevertheless, I was excited to share with my community something that was written about the hard work I have been doing with my collaborative. I have admired and dreamed of being in Dance Magazine since childhood. I had hoped to wake up this morning and share the article with my followers, friends and family and move on with the rest of my busy schedule. But I have been utterly devastated by this situation. I find it necessary to bring all of this to your attention and to engage in these conversations so that Black artists in the future don’t have to be subjected to this type of censorship or the editing of words for the comfort of others.
Instead of providing a platform for Black writers and/or artists to freely share their experiences, Editor-in-Chief, Jennifer Stahl has contrived a space that will show performative solidarity with Black lives but will silence them just enough to appease white readers, sponsors, and make my work palpable for “younger audiences.” Plainly stated, this is unsatisfactory and wrong! You don’t get to access our work and exclude our authentic experiences and voices. Ms. Stahl shared by phone that this was not her intention and that she has recently taken action to rectify the inadequate representation of Black writers and editors in the magazine. I believe we need spaces where we can be transparent and honest about our journeys. In reality, this is a pure example of a a primarily white institution which just doesn’t understand what #amplifymelanatedvoices really means.
This is not editing, this is censorship. Upon reaching out to the writer at Dance Magazine about my confusion and disheartenment of the modifications and exclusion of my quotes, the editor quickly backtracked to rectify one of the quotes that was redacted. I am witnessing firsthand the tool of “track changes” used as a part of oppression. Maybe if there were more Black editors and writers in positions of leadership perhaps a conversation such as this wouldn’t even be needed.
In an earlier conference call with Ms. Stahl and the writer, Stahl acknowledged that the changes were in fact made by her and not Jen Peters and that in hearing of my discontent of the omission of my quote in the last sentence, it should have not been edited out ( it has since been added back to the article but was the only quote or originally written phrase that was added back in). She also expressed her reasoning retaining statements in an effort to “make the story as impactful as possible”. I shared with Jennifer that the article captured the project and its inner-workings in a way that was most impactful by people of her similar lens and demographic pedigree. Lastly, I offered a suggestion in what she can do to amplify Black voices, in an unedited fashion due to the need for those spaces to allow our words to flow freely without manipulating them to fit the white gaze.
I felt this was important to share with you at this time especially because Nelson Mandela’s life was one where people often made great attempts to “redact” or silence his voice. Nelson wrote many letters to his wife Winnie Mandela that were redacted in an attempt to silence his voice and to further oppress and suppress his unapologetically Black voice and the liberation of Black people. It is devastating to me that 20 years following the historic release of Nelson Mandela from 27 years in jail, we are continuing to redact and silence Black voices to make their words more digestible and comfortable for white viewers.
I stand firmly on words I’ve said in the unpublished version, and they are “we are UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK.”
Warmly,
Jeremy McQueen - Founder of The Black Iris Project