As part of the Sorensen Center’s “Justice Through Art” initiative, the Center features choreographer Jeremy McQueen and principal dancer Elijah Lancaster for a discussion on systemic racism in the juvenile criminal system and reintegration upon release. The program includes a sneak preview of Act 1 of McQueen’s ballet film WILD which explores real-life accounts of youth who have grown up in the system. Professor Fareed Nassor Hayat, along with Sorensen Center Fellow Pablo Rojo ’21, discuss his scholarship on the constitutional due process implications of gang statutes and defendants’ rights to a fair trial.

McQueen is a 2020 Soros Justice Fellow, Emmy-nominated director/choreographer, and founder of The Black Iris Project, a ballet collaborative bringing together Black artists from various disciplines to create original classical and contemporary ballets that reflect Black history and/or the Black experience. Lancaster, a graduate of The Ailey School, is currently in his first season with Ailey II and is the principal dancer in WILD: Act 1. WILD, inspired by Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, follows the journeys of several young Black and brown men as they struggle to break free tom the systemic injustices that permeate their communities. It is propelled by dance and movement, in tandem with personal accounts, visual art, and original music, to transform the young men’s individual stories into a powerful reclamation of time, unity, space, and Black culture.

The Sorensen Center’s “Justice Through Art” initiative brings new perspectives and depth to legal challenges and explores the transformative impact of art and law.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy McQueen and Matthew Murphy.