I am excited to have my uber-talented friend, Amanda Adams-Louis, on the show! We talk about her work in street dance culture from documenting through her photography to her educational programs that continue to bridge the generational gap in street dance in NYC. I always learn new things in our conversations and it’s important to have someone like her in the culture to always shine a light on our beautiful culture. This is My Friends Are Fresh featuring Amanda Adams-Louis.
Lafotographeuse (née Amanda Adams-Louis) (she/elle)
In 2005, Lafotographeuse (née Amanda Adams-Louis) found her artistic joy on the dance floor to a post-disco soundtrack while attending a party called Soul in the Hole. Lafotographeuse is a Brooklyn-based photographer, educator, curriculum/program designer, cultural producer, house music aficionado, club kid, and street dance scholar. She earned her BFA in Photography from Pratt Institute and is a Studio Art alumna of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. Born in the U.S. and raised in Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean, Lafotographeuse’s oeuvre is informed by her experiences living, learning, and creating between multiple continents and cultures during her formative years. Her creative practice exists at the nexus of art, education, and archive. Her bodies of work celebrate dance forms developed from movement vocabularies, music, and performance traditions defined by Black, LGBTQIA, and Latinx communities in New York City. Lafotographeuse collaborates with dance artists to create images, exhibitions, workshops, and panels highlighting Black pleasure, play, leisure, and joy in motion. Her imagery, research, and production work illuminate the legacies of indigenous NYC dance subcultures developed to the sounds of Disco, Funk, House, Hip-Hop, R&B, Philly Soul, and other musical genres from the African diaspora.