Homophobia | Racism | Poetry

Choreography of Rage: The Heartbreaking Murder of Dancer O’Shae Sibley

Remembering the Brooklyn tragedy

What are you saying? His joy incited your hate? Are you telling me his dance ignited your rage? So befouled at your young age!

Did you lie in wait anticipating with glee, to leap on his stage, to pummel him black and blue in a violent pas de deux.

He was feeling free, a bird let out of his cage, waiting for his cue, to soar and lightly touch down, the music spinning him ‘round.

Who taught you to hate? To embrace a killing spree? Do you think God loves rage? Don’t you believe He loves you? And He loved the dancer too?

People are praying for the bird freed from his cage. You will not be free. So befouled at your young age! Two lives destroyed by your rage.

The headline in the New York Times article reporting his death read, “Dancer Stabbed to Death Was a Shy Boy Turned Proud, Exuberant Man”. O’Shae Sibley and his friends, fellow dancers, stopped at a Brooklyn, NY gas station to refuel. Music from a new Beyoncé album inspired the group of friends to break out in a spontaneous vogue dance. There was another group of young men in the parking lot that night. They begin shouting homophobic and racist slurs at the dancers. One of those young men was only 17 years old. O’Shae, who was known as a peacemaker among his circle of friends, approached the hecklers. Reports are unclear about exactly what happened next, but the tragic ending of the scene left O’Shae lying on the pavement as life drained from his body, the result of a fatal stab wound to his chest.

It was first reported that the teenager who inflicted the fatal stabbing was Muslim. Thankfully, that was not true. You may wonder why I am thankful that the teen was not Muslim. The reason is simple. We have enough targeted hate in our country. Islamophobia continues to fester since the 9/11 attacks on our country. I have Muslim friends who to this day are regarded with suspicion when people discover their faith.

I previously published a story about the ongoing relevance of the song “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught“ from the musical South Pacific. I pay homage to that song in my poem. Just as children are taught to hate, they can also be taught tolerance and respect for people who are different from them. We have to start building bridges instead of walls. (click on the song title for my story and to hear James Taylor sing this powerful song.)

I’ll end with this statement about his former dance teacher, Dr. Shaheed:

He has tried to imagine how happy and liberated Mr. Sibley must have felt during the last minutes of his life, jumping and vogueing with his friends. “He was free,” Dr. Shaheed said. “Dancing without a care in the world.”

New York Times August 4,2023

A note about the headliner image:

When using AI image generators, it usually takes giving several prompts, using different wording, before I get the image that I want. However, the headliner image that I used for this poem appeared on the first try. I loved the way the dancer resembled O’Shae Sibley. Even more, the light touching, his outstretched hand, brought tears to my eyes. It was as if O’Shae was reaching for heaven, and God was reaching down to him. I’d like to think that is how his spirit left this earth.