Flight

Download or read book Flight written by Susan Slotnick and published by . This book was released on 2019-09-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Susan was born to a mother cold and pretentious, and a father distant and, as she recalls, "most likely borderline autistic." Not the best nurturing environment for a gifted child, so she rebelled: flunking out of school; befriending those her mother would have considered "undesirables;" basically, living a life completely at odds to the one that would have ordinarily been "expected."But it was those early experiences that showed Susan how difficult life was for so many; it instilled in her a passionate zeal to help "the marginalized, the forgotten and the disenfranchised." And this interest in social justice has been "present" throughout her entire adult life.It is no wonder Susan as the choreographer, the painter, the writer, the dancer, has consistently used all her art forms as instruments to promote human rights and the concept of equality.Nowhere has that combination of creativity and activism been more compelling, and more successful, than with her teaching modern dance for the past 20 years to men imprisoned within the NYS correctional system. Her dance company, named "Figures In Flight," has garnered much critical and professional acclaim. A documentary about her work, entitled "The Game Changer," won Best Documentary Short at both the Harlem and Cannes film festivals. But the ultimate award for Susan's lifetime work must be how those men felt, aloft and moving, dancing to Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." We can only "Imagine." But Susan knows.