Thanks, @marksimon.bsky.social, for featuring Elaine. She is a gem and a wonderful leader. We ❤️ having her on the team.

Ballet Wichita springs forward, presenting civil rights history in ‘Breaking Barriers’ Ballet Wichita presents work about pioneering young people in “Breaking Barriers,” which opens the company’s season April 3-4. Guest choreographer Yusha-Marie Sorzano and the company’s new executive director Sandra Shih Parks contribute original dances to the company’s spring concert, which, since 2024, has been dedicated to new work and surprising explorations. Sorzano’s work, second on the program, will be what she calls an “honoring, reverencing” of bravery in the summer of 1958: teenagers and other young Black people who were members of Wichita’s NAACP Youth Council planned a sit-in at the Dockum Drug Store’s lunch counter in protest of its whites-only service policy. Guest choreographer Yusha-Marie Sorzano, at center, has worked with Ballet Wichita over the past year to create a dance based on the Dockum-sit-in. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ The sit-in in downtown Wichita lasted from July 19 to August 11, 1958 and involved some 24 NAACP Youth Council members, including its President Ron Walters. Sitting quietly at the lunch counter — not reading or chatting, simply looking forward with dignity — was a silent appeal for equal access. Lena Castro in rehearsal for "Breaking Barriers." The dance employs aluminum stools to represent lunch-counter seats. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ The Wichita youth achieved their goal when the owner of all the Rexall Drug Stores in Kansas issued a policy of serving “all people without regard to race, creed or color.” It was one of the first successful lunch-counter sit-ins in the U.S. Sorzano reveres “the specificity of the moment where young people made a decision and created change,” she said in an email interview. Yusha-Marie Sorzano recently created an original dance work for an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The visiting choreographer studied at the New World School of the Arts and Dance Theatre of Harlem before joining companies including Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and TU Dance. She is also a founding co-artistic director at Zeitgeist Dance Theatre. In April 2025, her work “This World Anew” accompanied the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition honoring the legacy of Alvin Ailey. She has been working with Ballet Wichita over the past year to bring the Dockum Sit-in to life through dance, a task she embraced. Dancers kneel and send their arms outstretched in unison as guest choreographer Yusha-Marie Sorzano looks on. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ “I felt a kind of responsibility land in my body — to respond with care,” she said. “These young people chose to sit, and that choice shifted something real.” To ground a work of dance in history, Sorzano visited The Kansas African American Museum to learn about and view artifacts related to the sit-in. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on Wichita’s arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The resulting piece “asks the dancers to hold something, to embody an environment of waiting, pressure, and endurance,” she said. With every gesture, small or far-reaching, each dancer propels the narrative. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ The piece casts five Black dancers to represent the students who sat at that counter. “Their bodies were the site of the action, and they hold a kind of stillness, yes — but the world around them witnesses, creates pressure, and gives in to pressure, resulting in change,” Sorzano said. “Both sides of the counter are important. It’s all one organism.” "They hold a kind of stillness." Emma McDonald in rehearsals for "Breaking Barriers." __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ In rehearsal, Sorzano’s choreography on the teenage dancers show a compacted and escaping energy: containment and release. At “the counter,” five Black dancers sit in profile, in a line away from the viewer, with square shoulders, hands facing down on knees, fingertips precisely aligned, and time seemingly suspended. They cycle through three counts: an extended pose of arms and torso, a contraction, a fanned pose with torsos twisted and fingers in bursts near their faces. On “four,” they withdraw like a Rubik's Cube, swiftly spun, clicking into solid colors: the original fingertips-aligned, straight-backed, chins-high pose. In their contained pose, the five dancers hold their ground before the tension breaks. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ The cycle continues as those at the "counter" express emotion. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ Behind them, nine more teenage dancers are on their feet internalizing a passage that Sorzano created prior to rehearsing the “counter” group. The tormented, violin/piano passage squeals, “one, two, three, four, FIVE! rest,” and the dancers, each in a wide-legged stance, whip through four beats of side-to-side leaning, reaching, enclosing, and churning both arms, the stretch direction alternating by row. Everyone pulls inward on “FIVE!’ — wrists crossed, two fists to the gut. On the third repetition, beats three, four, five are weaving, retreating steps backwards, like a staggering boxer. “What does it mean to hold your ground now?" Lena Castro in rehearsal at the Ballet Wichita studio in Wichita's Delano neighborhood. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ The atonal, non-metric music by Estonian composer Arvo Part holds tension and stretches time, so the audience can feel the waiting, the pressure, the endurance. Sorzano suggests the piece raises the question, “What does it mean to hold your ground now? That’s a sacred choice — to sit, to endure, to not move when everything in the world is pushing against you.” While the dance captures the stoicism of the sit-in participants, an opposite expressiveness weaves its way through the piece. Pictured from left: Isabelle Johnson, Emma McDonald, and Tatiana Rivera. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ The first half of the evening, “Invisible,” is a newly reworked dance by Parks that focuses on visibility and legacy. The 18-minute piece is based on concerts sung by female orphans raised at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where a metal grill — a literal barrier — separated audiences from the performers. Founded by nuns in the 14th century, the orphanage and music school taught vocal and instrumental music. The orphans performed music by composers including resident artist Antonio Vivaldi, who wrote many of his sacred works for the female musicians. One part of Ballet Wichita'a "Breaking Barriers" program reflects history close to home. The other calls to a more distant global history of women in the arts. __Photo by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ Parks recently assumed the position of executive director and CEO of Ballet Wichita. She is excited by the “genuine passion and support for the arts” she has observed here during her brief tenure. In an email interview, Parks said her first concert with Ballet Wichita aligns with her own approach to presenting dance. “I am interested in connecting past and present and in creating work that invites audiences to reflect on whose voices are seen, heard, and remembered,” she said. Coaching dancers to present “Invisible” within weeks of her arrival in Wichita allowed Parks to immediately model “a shared creative process,” she said, showing that “leadership is artistic and collaborative, not just administrative.” "Breaking Barriers" dancers in rehearsal, from left: Lena Castro, Evangeline May, JaNyah Core, Avery Smith, Shawn Gordon, Juliana Gonzalez, Tatiana Rivera, Emma McDonald, and Isabelle Johnson embody the tension and restraint of the choreography honoring Dockum sit-in organizes. __Photos by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ Both works in “Breaking Barriers” reflect what Ballet Wichita producing artistic director Logan Pachciarz calls “the dance language of humanity” that can excite audiences of all ages. He hopes that reflecting an important piece of local history will help nurture an appreciation of dance. And, perhaps, what it can convey. “A dancer’s body can relay resistance, limitation, and release,” Parks said. “We hope viewers will witness and feel the act of breaking through.” Choreographer Yusha-Marie Sorzano, at center left, demonstrates a movement during a rehearsal for "Breaking Barriers." __Photos by Kendra Cremin for The SHOUT.__ ## The Details **Ballet Wichita presents “Breaking Barriers,” a night of contemporary dance** April 3-4, 2026 at the B-29 Doc Hangar, Education & Visitors Center, 1788 S. Airport Road in Wichita Performances take place from 7:30-9 p.m. with a 15-minute intermission. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. General admission tickets are $21.75 or $32.25 for premium seats with the best sight lines. Buy tickets online. “Breaking Barriers” is funded in part by a $25,000 City of Wichita Arts Thrive Grant, a regranting program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. * * * _**Jan Swartzendruber** began dancing after she left her hometown of Hesston, Kansas, for the East Coast in 1973, where lessons in modern, jazz, tap, folk, and ballroom dance were easy to find. In Botswana, Africa, and Fairfax, Virginia, she taught a blend of dance forms to adult beginners before taking "serious" jobs in journalism, design, and public school teaching. She previously served on the board of the Regina Klenjoski Dance Company._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

The dance company's spring concert features two original works. One honors the participants in Wichita's 1958 Dockum Drug Store sit-in, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

First Aid Kit: I Hosted a Mutual Aid Swap in My Backyard. So Can You! It’s time to stop waiting around for those in power to save us. We, the people, can get everyone’s basic needs met.

subscriptions to COYOTE have slowed down by a LOT. and yes, I’m worried, but I also know that people are generally terrified out there. I’m just glad we’re still committed to giving people the knowhow to survive. stories like this one will be free to read forever www.coyotemedia.org/i-hosted-a-m...

We're excited to see two of our fiscal sponsees among the award winners! Way to go, Clyde Hughes of @frontrunnernj.bsky.social and @krystalknapp.bsky.social of @jerseyvindicator.bsky.social.

Local news learns to love the arts again "In the last few years, we have started to see some small green shoots emerging that have made me hopeful that we're on the cusp of a reimagining and renewal in local arts and culture coverage."

Scene in Boston is a lovely example of how local news can learn to love the arts again — a concept share by our executive director @terabithia4.bsky.social in the @niemanlab.org 2026 predictions: www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/loca...

🌱 A big TNC welcome to Laura Amico, founder of Scene in Boston. Centering community in its design, Scene in Boston consists of a reported events calendar and a twice-monthly podcast, all about theater and culture.

🎧 Tune in here: www.sceneinboston.org

5 Questions with Ottawa News Network’s Sarah Leach & Sheila Reinecke The origin story of the Ottawa News Network includes twists and turns of community political controversy and the firing of a longtime journalist.

🌟 Our latest “5 Questions with…” features Sarah Leach & Sheila Reinecke of Ottawa News Network. After Sarah’s reporting on local government garnered community attention in 2024, the idea to form ONN was hatched.

Dive into our latest conversation here: www.tinynewsco.org/5-questions-...

We’re proud to have them in our Collective!

Ethiopique-ኢትዮጲክ A bridge to community.

🎂 Happy Birthday to @ethiopique202.bsky.social

Founded by Henok Mengistu four years ago, Ethiopique serves Amharic-speaking communities across DC, MD and VA. From hundreds of stories to community events, they are constantly uplifting Ethiopian & Eritrean voices.

🔗 ethiopique.com

Please invite him to check us out if he's looking for some support, Carrie! His newsletter sounds 🔥

I’m doing a free event to help more people leave Substack this year

luma.com/qho2psws

New Jersey Sen. @andrewzwicker.bsky.social introduced a bill, S3744, that would require state agencies to direct 30% of their advertising budgets to local news outlets. The model follows NYC’s approach, which has already directed $72 million to community and ethnic news organizations since 2020.

Congrats! We work with a lot of early-stage indie media, and it would be wonderful to have more of members here on Bluesky.

Screenshot of a text message I received Garnet Feb 23, 2025 at 3:37 PM Garnet: Ok I am actually so serious about a worker-owned repro publication Me: Shall we have a business meeting? Yes I think we actually should Me: Fabulous

One year ago today :’) @garnethenderson.com @autonomynews.co

Revealed: How Substack makes money from hosting Nazi newsletters Exclusive: Site takes a cut of subscriptions to content that promotes far-right ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism

This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/f...

Yup. We keep telling folks that, too! It's all about the impact on/for the communities they are trying to serve. And that's why we need to shelve vanity metrics and a rush toward scaling at all costs. Building with communities at the speed of trust will have more potential to thrive.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but if you’re a journalist out of work, and you think it’s for you, check out @tinynewscollective.bsky.social. We’ll help you out.

Journalist Georgia Fort has been released from custody (video @fox9mn.bsky.social)

NABJ OUTRAGED AT ARRESTS OF DON LEMON, GEORGIA FORT ‘THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS NOT OPTIONAL’ The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is outraged and deeply alarmed by the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort by federal agents, and […]

Please also look at the statement from NABJ about Georgia and Don Lemon's arrest, to which we are a signatory. nabjonline.org/blog/nabjout... (
@errinhaines.bsky.social)

We stand in full solidarity with Georgia Fort, a TNC alumna, independent journalist and community leader in Minnesota who was arrested today following Fort’s coverage of a protest at a church in St. Paul on Jan. 18. www.tinynewsco.org/tnc-condemns...

🚀 The Big Blast from Tiny News, January 2026 🤔 How tiny newsrooms define resilience

🤔 What does resilience actually look like for community-rooted newsroom leaders when the news hits close to home? In our January 🚀 Big Blast from Tiny News, we slow down to listen.

www.tinynewsco.org/the-big-blas...

Tiny News gives second round of Immediate Needs grants to 20 member newsrooms These $5,000 grants will help members secure essential back-office support, fill a salary gap, hire a contract grant writer and more.

For a list of all the grantees:

www.tinynewsco.org/tiny-news-gi...

🙏🏽We’d like to give a shout-out to the reviewers of our second immediate needs grant opportunity. Many thanks to Richard Brown of Wisconsin Watch, Tom Davidson of Penn State, Nation Hahn, Ashton Lattimore, Shawn Mooring of Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Anna Nirmala and Ashley Woods Branch.

How Racket, Minneapolis’s Worker-Owned Newsroom, Is Covering Its Hometown Fascist Invasion “This is the worst fucking time. But watching people’s response to ICE has been the most affirming thing in the world.”

This interview really does have everything: townie critiques of news coverage (2.5 miles is not that close in MPLS!) to handing the mic over to real people, to how to do arts coverage under siege, to what they've learned from war correspondents. www.coyotemedia.org/how-racket-m...

5 Questions with 505omatic’s Katy Gross, Warren Langford and Jerome Morrison Learn about the founding of 505omatic and how digital and in-person engagement on news and cultural stories are central to their mission.

🌟 Our latest "5 Questions with..." features Jerome Morrison, Katy Gross, and Warren Langford of @505omatic.bsky.social. An independent collective of journalists, 505omatic creates accessible social media content that has garnered a strong community following.

www.tinynewsco.org/5-questions-...

Massarah Mikati joins TNC as response and resilience program manager She will focus on supporting members with the specific risks they face as news founders of community-rooted outlets.

🎉We’re excited to welcome @massarah.bsky.social as our first-ever Response & Resilience Program manager. 💖In this role, Massarah will support our members — early-stage, community-rooted newsrooms — by helping them navigate the real risks and pressures they face.
www.tinynewsco.org/massarah-mik...

The Southlander is honored to receive support from the Immediate Needs Fund established by Tiny News Collective. We will be using the funds to obtain media liability insurance, which is essential before we publish our first investigations of 2026.

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@newsrelaynetwork.bsky.social, @newsberg.org, @planetavenusonline.bsky.social, Prior Lake News Compass, Queer and Trans Wealth, TMBP Media, The Carrborean, The Edge, @theparlormagazine.bsky.social, The Platia, @theshout.shoutwichita.com.ap.brid.gy, @thesouthlander.com and Winston Salem Sentinel

Tiny News gives second round of Immediate Needs grants to 20 member newsrooms These $5,000 grants will help members secure essential back-office support, fill a salary gap, hire a contract grant writer and more.

We're excited to announce the 20 member newsrooms that have received funding from our Immediate Needs Fund: @autonomynews.co, Crosswinds News, Bottom Up Media, Chisholm Free Press, Esta es la Cosa, @kaheawaimedia.bsky.social, Miami Affordable Magazine ...

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Support the Tiny News Collective | Tiny News Collective The Tiny News Collective equips visionary news entrepreneurs in underserved communities to transform...

🎁 As we head toward the end of the year, we humbly ask if you would donate to Tiny News Collective. Your donation will help us meet our ambitious goals and continue to address the deeper needs of news neglect and news deserts. THANK YOU! tinynewsco.monkeypod.io/give/support...