The Staying Power of Alvin Ailey’s "Revelations"

Alvin Ailey perform in Revelations, in 2011. Photo by Earl Gibson/AP.

The pandemic has put a pin in many people's travel plans - to the beach, to big cities, and, perhaps most poignantly, to our hometowns. Kayla Stewart's feature for Texas Monthly underscores what it means to feel homesick and search for what connects us to place through the arts. Streaming the work of Alvin Ailey, who was a native Texan, Stewart finds comfort in the piece's meditation on Black grief and joy. Audiences can now access Revelations through the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's YouTube.

“"Revelations" is potent even behind my laptop or my TV screen...Ailey’s choreography evokes both a spiritual and an emotional experience that I’ve felt only in Black churches, at Black community events, and with my family. ” - Kayla Stewart