The following is an excerpt of a post on the Library’s Of the People blog, co-written with Karen Abdul-Malik, also known as Queen Nur, a 2022 recipient of the American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant. The Community Collections Grants program is part of the Library’s Of the People: Widening the Path initiative, which seeks to create new opportunities to engage with the Library of Congress and to add their perspectives to the Library’s collections, allowing the national library to share a more inclusive American story.
On Saturday, February 25, at Wilson’s Restaurant in Hi-Nella, New Jersey, the Community on the Line project team held their packed culminating event. Led by Community Collections Grant recipient Karen Abdul-Malik, also known as Queen Nur, the project, Community on the Line: The Culture of Urban Soul Line Dancing in the Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware Tri-State Area, has focused since March 2022 on documenting Soul Line Dance traditions. Now nearing its end, the project was “designed to develop a better understanding of the R&B/Soul Line Dance community from the perspective of its culture keepers and to initiate a new and original digitized cultural heritage collection at the American Folklife Center,” as Queen Nur states.
The celebration began with – spoiler alert! – line dancing, set to the tunes and mixes played by beloved DJ AJ Rivers and DJ Chris Blues, who is also a choreographer, instructor and event producer. Esteemed project team member, choreographer, instructor and event producer Kenny J took the mic and welcomed participants – about 150 dancers and community members from the tri-state area and beyond…
Click on through to find out more about the Community on the Line celebration!