LITANY | Pt. IV | EBONY

Chicago-based burlesque artist Jenn Freeman, also known as Po’Chop, uses elements of dance, storytelling, and striptease to create performances and inspire students and collaborators across the country. Po’Chop has performed at the Brooklyn Museum in Brown Girls Burlesque’s Bodyspeak, and headlined shows in New Orleans, Minneapolis, St. Louis and New York. Po’Chop is a Board Member and Cast Member for Jeezy’s Juke Joint, an all black burlesque revue. Po’Chop performs on Netflix’s Easy (Season 2), appears in music videos for songs by Jamila Woods and Mykele Deville, and is a muse for co-created experimental dance films such as Home | Here. Jenn Freeman was awarded as a 2017 3Arts Make A Wave Artist, selected as a 2018 Chicago Dancemakers Lab Artist and as a 2019 Urban Bush Women Choreographic Fellow Candidate, and most recently can be found collaborating with Rebuild Foundation as their 2020 Chicago Dancemakers Forum dancer in resident.

My aunt used to do women’s hair outta her kitchen. As a child I spent Saturday afternoons at the foot of a swiveling yellow leather chair while church women told stories of travelling cousins and sinning deacons. My aunt used to keep a wicker basket full of the latest magazines for folks to thumb through as they got their hair did. Among these glossy pages were editions of Ebony and Jet magazines. Amidst the scent of sizzling hair, I spent hours flipping through Ebony in awe. Marveling at the colorful ads, the depictions of city life, the elegance of the fashion editorials and the hairstyles. As a lil’ Black girl growing up in rural Missouri, Ebony was my introduction to the mantra “Black is Beautiful.”