The Milwaukee-based Ko-Thi Dance Company has been a community institution for 56 years — both nationally and internationally.
Ko-Thi preserves, teaches, documents and performs dance and music rooted in the cultures of the African Diaspora.
The dance company recently announced that it lost $30,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Now, Ko-Thi is calling on the community for help to fill in the gaps. The dance company launched its $56 for 56th campaign to raise money.
Asha Sawyers is Ko-Thi's managing director. She says the company aims to raise $100,000 and Ko-Thi will run the campaign until it reaches that goal.
What did the NEA tell organizations like Ko-Thi Dance Company regarding the agency’s shifting priorities?
ASHA SAWYERS: They said, the NEA is updating its grant making policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the president. Consequently, we are terminating awards that fall outside these priorities. The NEA will now prioritize projects that elevate the nation's HBCU's and historic serving institutions, celebrates the 250th anniversary of American independence, fosters AI competence, empowers houses of worship to serve communities, assist with disaster recovery, foster skilled trade jobs, makes America healthy again, supports the military and veterans, supports tribal communities, makes the District of Columbia safe and beautiful and supports the economic development of Asian American communities. Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of this administration's agenda.
What is the $56 for 56th campaign?
So, the general kind of response to that is that Ko-Thi is important and we have got to fund Ko-Thi. The community that loves and receives from Ko-Thi has now got to start funding Ko-Thi — that's like the over arching thing. But there's this other underlying thing which is that our community has got to learn how to support the things that support us. We have to give to the things that matter to us.
And this administration is actually doing us a favor in the sense that we are learning how to keep what somebody else would take away from us. We get this opportunity to choose to keep it. And so that is why we're starting the $56 for 56th — we're saying: they would erase us by taking away these major grants that support our existence right? They would erase Ko-Thi by doin that — that's why the grants were rescinded ... But we've created this campaign to say: community if you got a Ko-Thi story, if you've ever heard the drums, if you've ever been moved, if you've ever been touched, if you have ever seen something in Ko-Thi that's inside of you, now is the time to support this thing that is important. These are our stories. This is our identity. This is something that is true about us and we need to support those things.
And so we created this campaign to say will you support it and give you the opportunity to take a stand in this moment with all that's happening. This is actually an opportunity to take a stand and to choose to save the things that matter to you.
What would the consequences be for Milwaukee Ko-Thi is no longer the staple that it has been?
Inside of Ko-Thi has sprung up — it’s been rich soil for people to spring up like roots and grow like trees. So, to say, “What would reality be like if Ko-Thi wasn’t here?” is to say, “What would the Earth be like if we took away the soil?” It’s going to be hard to grow. People in every genre have sprung up out of Ko-Thi. You’d be shocked at how many threads of lives run through Ko-Thi — whether they are dancers, or whether they’re in politics, or whether they are opening, you know, amazing businesses, or vice presidents at local corporations. Why? Because we talked about this soil that gives all the nutrients. Gives your power back. Gives identity. Gives a place to be seen genuinely. Really, people are coming to learn who they are themselves as they step into a Ko-Thi room and let their hair down for the first time and just unfold their wings in what we’re doing.
And this creates confidence — to be who you are in a society that’s hostile to you. To be who you are in a world that’s difficult to live in, no matter who you are. Black, white, Puerto Rican and Chinese come in here and do these dances and will leave with confidence and strength to step into who they really are in the world.
And Ko-Thi is soil. So, can you imagine a world without the soil? We got a problem without soil.
