Dayton Contemporary Dance Company presents “The Blackest Berry: Dancing African Diaspora,” May 6.
May 2, 2023 | By Tristan Bruns
The phrase “the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice” has taken on different meanings since the first recorded use in the late 19th century. At once a term of affection, more recently the phrase has become a metaphor for how slavery in the United States has affected Black communities, the metaphorical fruit that grew from numerous African ethnicities being forced together through inequality, discrimination and oppression.