As part of PRIDE Month ‘Nowness’ is presenting Tajabone as part of their Just Dance’ series.  It’s the work of Nicolas Huchard a young Black choreographer and performer from Paris who collaborated with filmmaker Raphael Chatelain. The pair of them mixed choreography, poetry, and fashion to make the film come together as a celebration of self-expression and tribalism.

Tajabone is a short film about the french black queer community taking pride in who they are, what they have achieved, and embracing the bodies they are in. Wearing leopard-print leotards that embody their fierce dancing styles, the stars of Tajabone use their bodies to explore the fragility, strength, and conviction at the heart of a community bonded by radical self-expression.

Rapper and poet Mykki Blanco’s words bind these movements together in a way that cuts through the surface of joy and into the depth of Black suffering. The film is a mournful, yet hopeful, call for a world that we can create. 

Tajabone is one example of representing what queerness looks like in all its forms, and it’s the type of content that we need to uplift. As the sun rests on the dancers, and their Black bodies move and worship each other effortlessly, Blanco says, laughing, “This is what freedom feels like, baby.”