Dancing Black Radical Presence

Abstract This chapter develops the concept of “lakou work” to conceptualize how Haitian dance artists Yonel Charles and Jean Appolon reimagine Vodou epistemologies through dance as a vehicle for Black, queer, and feminist liberation. Drawing from the revolutionary origins of Ayiti and the spiritual, communal practices of the lakou, the chapter discusses how their performances create spaces of remembrance, resistance, and collective healing. Charles’s memorial dance for the Pulse massacre and Appolon’s Lakou Ayiti performance suite demonstrate how embodied practices animate memory, challenge systemic violence, and foster transnational solidarity. Their works, grounded in Vodou epistemes, draw connections between migration, queerness, and Blackness, offering embodied responses to structural injustice. Finally, the chapter presents their lakou work as a radical praxis that activates histories, cultivates belonging, and invites new collectivities into sacred, transformative motion.