Sequoia Ascension is a community centered organization committed to nurturing the holistic well-being of Black, Native American, and Afroindigenous people in Atlanta. Through our housing, dance, and wellness offerings, we intend to create spaces of belonging, self discovery, and joy.
Mission
Sequoia Ascension is a community centered organization committed to nurturing the holistic well-being of Black, Native American, and Afroindigenous people in Atlanta. Through our housing, dance, and wellness offerings, we intend to create spaces of belonging, self discovery, and joy.
Vision
History
Sequoia was built in 1953 by Edward Johnson. Johnson served during World War II as an instructor for the legendary Tuskegee Airmen and later became the first Black licensed master electrician in the city of Atlanta. Before his transition (death) in 2019 he sold the home to the Georgia Trust for historic preservation (GTHP) to build a legacy of affordable housing in Atlanta. With the support of the Atlanta Land Trust, Sequoia Ascension bought the property from GTHP in 2020 with the intention to carry forth the legacy of affordable housing. We now call this property home and it serves as a shared venue for community programming and the AIR Program. Not only is the property registered as a historic home, we made a vow to the GTHP and The Atlanta Land Trust to preserve the property and uphold it as home for affordable housing.
Founders
Al Taw’am, an Emmy-nominated ensemble, is a multimodal dance group composed of twin sisters Umi IMAN & Khadijah Siferllah, who are also the founders of Sequoia Ascension. As Black Americans, Tsalagi Native Americans, Muslims, and women, they sit proudly at the intersections of many divine lineages and communities. They define dance as the creative expression of story and E(motions), and use their platform with the intention to honor who they are, where they come from, and their legacy that will succeed them.
IMAN and Khadijah are practitioners of many Black and Indigenous dance/movement practices, such as Hip Hop, Poppin, Waving, House, Waacking, and Traditional West African (particularly styles originating from Guinea), Jingle Dress, and Fancy Shawl. Within their movement style, they enjoy the intentional fusion of different styles of dance while still honoring the original genres and frameworks that inspire them.
They find physical and contextual correlations between genres and enjoy exploring the connections and nuances between them. This fusion is intuitive and deeply seated in their blood as beings of Native, Caribbean, and Afro-Diasporic heritage. It has become their natural tendency to flow between styles and influences, reflecting a beautiful harmonizing of all that they are and know.