- We're reclaiming our femininity.

We're reclaiming our power.

We're reclaiming our sexuality.

We're reclaiming our self identity.

My name is Erika Ramona Stowall, I go by Big Red and I am a dancer/choreographer located in Detroit, Michigan.

A big part of my growing up was my grandmother.

She's from the South, seriously southern, so that was really important to me to have her story within my choreography and my West African movement because that's where the passion came from, for dance, for me.

My movement, I kinda call it a mutt.

My dad hates when I call it a mutt.

He just call it gumbo cuz that's how country we are.

So everything goes back to cooking, so it's a whole big pot of everything.

To be a dancer in Detroit, you have to acknowledge where you are, You see, Detroit has, for many years, been a predominantly Black community.

And you're seeing people being pushed out, unwanted.

As a Black woman myself, that's not something I'm gonna stand for and tolerate.

So where is my biggest voice?

It's in my movement.

I wanted to talk about spaces where women felt objectified.

As a person who developed very early as a young girl, who got attention from older men very early as a young girl, I didn't have someone to go talk to about these feelings I was having.

It's amazing when you start opening up the communication about these things, how you find out this happened to you too?

This happened to you too?

You had this experience as well?

And we become united.

With dance I'm able to be happy, invite people into my happy space and be vulnerable, but powerful as well.

I put on my crown and I'm just ready to go, and I'm just the most powerful thing ever when I'm moving.