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Crosscurrents

Ladies in line

PERNILLA PERSSON. Cropped and resized

The Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center is the only building on the block where there is constant activity. Laughter pours out of the cafeteria, which for now has been turned into a dance floor. 

The line dance class meets on Fridays, just after breakfast and just before the popular catfish and okra is served for lunch. But, there’s nothing country about this line dancing. It’s pure soul. 
They glide. Slide. Crunch, and shake. Some of the ladies give each other disapproving side stares if others are shaking too much. They like to keep it uniform and in sync.

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This story first aired on April 1, 2014 as a part of the Sights and Sounds of Bayview project – a collaboration between the San Francisco Arts Commission and KALW to tell stories of people who live, work, and make change in the Bayview. Hear more stories like this one by clicking on the links below.

Crosscurrents
Leila Day is a Senior Producer at Pineapple Street Media and is the Executive Producer and co-host of The Stoop Podcast, stories about the black diaspora. Her work has been featured on NPR, 99% Invisible, the BBC as well as other outlets. Before The Stoop, she was an editor at Al Jazeera's podcast network and worked on creating and editing award winning narrative driven journalism. She began her career in journalism at KALW where she worked as a health care and criminal justice reporter. During that time she contributed as an editor, taught audio storytelling to inmates at San Quentin, and helped develop curriculum for training upcoming reporters.