Cry

This is Love

Vox Media Podcast Network

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.8 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1971, for his mother’s birthday, Alvin Ailey gave her a ballet. The dance was grueling – sometimes the women who did it bled. “I remember very well seeing my mother on her knees scrubbing these white folks’ rooms and halls. That image is in my ballet ‘Cry.’” Say hello on Facebook and Instagram. Follow the show and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to listen to This is Love ad-free? Sign up for Criminal Plus (now on Patreon!) – you’ll get to listen to This is Love, Criminal, and Phoebe Reads a Mystery without any ads. Plus, you’ll get behind-the-scenes bonus episodes of Criminal and other exclusive benefits. Learn more and sign up here. We also make Criminal and Phoebe Reads a Mystery. Artwork by Julienne Alexander. Check out our online shop. Episode transcripts are posted on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's time for Black Friday at Dell Technologies.
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0:32.2	Think perfume.
0:33.1	Think the perfume shop this Christmas.
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0:36.2	Visit theperfumes shop.com for more.
0:40.7	I remember the first time I did the piece in rehearsal in New York in the in the studio.
0:49.7	And the music starts do, do do do, doom, doom, doom, do do do do. And I'm doing the circle with the cloth. And literally,
0:56.1	I started moving. I maybe did half a circle. And Judy stopped the music. And she said, let's start
1:01.1	again. She pressed the music again. And I did it again. And this went on like two or three times,
1:06.7	three or four. And I remember thinking, Dag, I haven't even moved. I have not moved, and I can't
	...

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