Jo'artis Ratti: A Founder of Krump, a Voice for Change

Jo'Artis Ratti, from Los Angeles, is one of the founders of KRUMP (Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise). He danced in front of a police line in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. This was especially impactful because it was during a time of high police brutality during the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Krump is a dance style that formed in black and brown communities in the late 90s-2000s, and it can be described as aggressive as it involves intense, sharp, and explosive movements of the whole body.  Krumping was a way for the youth to express their emotions in a non-violent way through an art form. This makes the way he danced in front of the police line even more influential because we know it isn't violent, yet the police were going to hurt him until he told them he was just dancing.

The reason Ratti performed this dance was because while at a protest the day before in Los Angeles, the police became aggressive and forcefully pushed people down. He decided he wanted to use his dance as his voice of change.

The occasion of this performance -- the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests against police brutality -- makes the movement itself more powerful.