Search all showsMorley Prize Podcast
Series 3 Episode 5: Rennie Harris
The Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour now accepts manuscripts in non-fiction.
In this podcast in support of Morley College’s Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour, I speak to street dance choreographer Dr Lorenzo (Rennie) Harris. Raised in Philadelphia, by the village (in the traditional Yoruba/Igbo sense that it takes a village to raise a child), Harris was commissioned by the world-famous Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in 2018 to pay homage to its founder. Ailey, best known for his signature piece Revelations, had his life and work commemorated in the BBC documentary Alvin Ailey: A Legend of American Dance.
In addition to exploring the concept of blood memories and the place of dance performance in reflecting African American history, Rennie and I discuss the historical spectacle of Black entertainment and its limitations from a creative/ inspirational perspective. Rennie also talks about the collaborative nature of hip hop and the degree to which it has been integral to his life, reflecting that he ‘never thought of it as something that was outside of’ himself.