Date
Jan 30, 2026
Event Type
Dance
Ticket Price
Single tickets start at $20
Three show packages available starting at $51
On Sale
On sale now
Show Description
Presented by the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
Our Road Home is an interactive rhythmic production created and directed by native Houston artist Jakari Sherman. Through layered rhythmic storytelling – spoken, rapped, preached, and sung – the work honors the communal labor and ingenuity that built spaces of freedom across time. The body is the central instrument of music and movement in Our Road Home, affirming that the power to create and preserve freedom resides within us. The percussive tradition of stepping, as well as drumming and vocal textures combine to highlight the agency of those who claimed their autonomy. Inspired by the legacy of Houston’s Freedmen’s Town, the work asks: Once freedom is gained, how do we live in it, preserve it, and pass it on when the pull of bondage lingers near?
Our Road Home is part of a broader initiative exploring “freedom as a way of life”. It seeks to examine and exhibit freedom beyond a fight and invites audiences to imagine what it looks like to live and thrive in liberation. The shift from resistance to restoration opens space for imagination, healing, and speculative futures. The work premiered at the Bethel church historic site to commemorate the 160th anniversary of Freedmen’s Town, and the Hobby Center’s expanded production of Our Road Home shares this important work with Houstonians and visitors of all ages.
[Jk]creativ appears as part of the Hobby Center’s annual initiative that celebrates and supports local artists who broaden our city’s cultural fabric and embody the iconic idea that Houston is Inspired. Building on the Hobby Center’s mission to serve as a connector, convener, and incubator, this program brings audiences and artists together through experiences that center connection and community.
Performance Schedule
- Audio Description
- Open Captions
- ASL
Swipe to see more details
- Fri Jan 30, 2026 at 7:00 pm
Creative Director, Jakari Sherman
[Jk]creativ is a multidisciplinary creativ company developing purpose-driven and truth-seeking cultural works. Through myriad creativ initiatives – from visual design to live performance; discussion groups to serving the unhoused – the company is redefining how the arts and creatives are engaged as agents of change within communities.
Creative Director, Jakari Sherman is a recent MacDowell Fellow and Dance Source Houston Artist-in-Residence, who is considered the first modern choreographer of ‘stepping’. For two decades, Jakari has pioneered the integration of traditional and contemporary stepping into full-length concert works, challenging conventions through storytelling, technology, and cross-disciplinary innovation. Jakari is the former Artistic Director of Washington, DC-based Step Afrika!, and an ethnochoreologist conducting research into the culture and history of stepping and other percussive movement practices. His work has been recognized globally for its unique blend of cultural exploration and energetic percussive dance. He is the Director of Drumfolk and The Migration: Reflections on Jacob Lawrence, both celebrated works of the Houston Theatre District.
