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2O2 4 – 2O2 5 GU I D E to Y E L LOW S P R I NG S 59 ▲ Terry Hempfling, left, and Valerie Blackwell-Truitt rehearsed a piece for the 2022 Valerie Blackwell-Truitt Community Dance and Perfor - mance Arts Concert and Art Exhibition. Though the pandemic halted many of the events to which its cycle is attuned, by 2022, Yellow Springs had begun slowly moving again in time to the rhythms of village life. That December, one of those rhythms — quite literally — was restored in leaps and bounds, when the Valerie Blackwell- Truitt Community Dance and Performing Arts Concert returned for its first concert in more than three years. In preparation for the return of the concert, villager and dancer Valerie Blackwell-Truitt spoke with the News that year. She spoke as she rehearsed a piece with dancer Terry Hemp - fling to the song “Why Do You Hate Me?” by Columbus-based father-and-daughter hip-hop musicians Montez “Tez” and MOVING COMMUNITY By LAUREN ‘CHUCK’ SHOWS Makayla Mickens. As Blackwell-Truitt and Hempfling rehearsed, the lyrics of “Why Do You Hate Me?” reverberated off the walls of the studio: “I thought I had a little bit of time before I told you: This world don’t treat us all equally; some do. Crooked- ass cops look at us like we dumb, too, and that’s just something every Black man gotta go through.” The lyrics of the song, framed by the 2020 Colum- bus killing of Casey Goodson by a Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy later indicted for Good- son’s murder, recount a Black parent explaining police vio- lence against Black Americans to their child. Blackwell-Truitt said social jus - tice issues like those outlined in “Why Do They Hate Me?” were foundational to the origins of the Community Dance Concert. Beginning in the late 1980s, Blackwell-Truitt co-directed the One Nation Performance Ensemble, which was based at Miami University, where she earned her master’s degree. “A lot of the pieces that [One Nation] did were for social change, making people aware that there are so many of us who are different, but … that we all have things to contribute, regardless of our sexual orienta- tion, regardless of our race,” she told the News in 2022. In 1992, Blackwell-Truitt pre - sented her first dance concert in the village at the Foundry The- ater with One Nation — an event that spurred her to continue presenting performances that eventually became the annual Community Dance Concert. “That was the first per - formance that I artistically directed and produced — and I’ve been trying to do it ever P H O T O : L A U R E N ' C H U C K ' S H O W S Over 20 MICRO BREWS on Tap • Y E L L O W S P R I N G S , O H • 104 Xenia Ave. • 937-767-4850 www.peachsgrill.com HHH WEEKLY EVENTS HHH • SUNDAY NIGHT $1 off drafts, $1 off Bloody Marys • MONDAYS $1 off drafts • TUESDAYS $1 off import & craft bottles; OPEN MIC NIGHT 8–11 • WEDNESDAYS $ 5 bomb drinks H MUSIC BINGO! H 7–11 • THURSDAYS TRIVIA NIGHT 7–11 • FRIDAYS Ladies night after 9 p.m. $1 well drinks for ladies! Ages 21+ GREAT MUSIC