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Helanius J. Wilkins, assistant professor of dance, was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant for a choreographed duet intended to “heal and unite” and to reflect “re-bodying belonging to become better ancestors.”

With the NEA’s support—and with additional funding and support from the College of Arts and Sciences—Wilkins and the ��ƷSM����ӰƬ dance division will collaborate with several touring, commissioning presenter-partners.

The work is called The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging and is described as a multi-year, multi-outcome work that is “an ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resiliency, justice and hope.”

Wilkins said his creative research is rooted in the interconnections of American contemporary performance, cultural history and identities of Black men.