Well, hello there. It's Morgan Harper Nichols here. I'm an artist and a writer, and this is a

space where I turn the lens on various topics and subjects in hopes to learn something new or see

something in a new way. Today's episode is called Give Yourself Some Credit for Learning How to Dance

in the Shadows. Thanks for listening. I'm Morgan Harper-Nichols.

Today's episode is a long-form prose poetry piece that I wrote called Dancing in the Shadows.

I wrote this piece in September of 2019 after visiting Orlando, Florida, where I was a part of an event called Heavy and Light

with Try Love on Our Arms. And I was just so moved by the stories and the people gathered. And

especially now considering that was one of the last events that I went to like that for a very long time,

I definitely just believe in the power of storytelling and how our stories remind us of one another's

courage and ability to go dancing in the shadows. So this piece wasn't necessarily written to a one person

in particular, but it was written with a lot of different stories in mind and how we have all

been so resilient and so courageous in so many different ways. And I just have so many moments where I just stop and think about that.

And it's just really moving just to think about how the people that we pass each day, whether we

know them or not, all have so many stories about how they've learned how to breathe and even dance through difficult

seasons of life. So this poem is somewhat dedicated to those experiences that I believe are in all of us

in one way or another. And that's what this poem is about, dancing in the shadows. Oh, how beautifully and courageously you are learning to dance in the

shadows amidst all that is unknown. For maybe this life is less about trying to paint all of the

shadows out of the room, but learning to move with them and even dance with them. You can only place

so many lamps in the room so the shadows can't gather. Eventually they find their place on the walls

and floors and at night they spill out over everything. And this is also true. We are still free to keep living amiss their

presence. We may not be able to pick them up in our hands and toss them out the window,

but we can still paint the walls blue, green, yellow. We can make room for plants. We can still paint the walls blue, green, yellow.

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