"I've experienced love. I've experienced loss. And I do have a subtext for every piece. But I always ask myself who is J'Nai in this?"
"When it's done correctly, it's completely rewarding because it's the essence of him and the essence of his work as a choreographer and as a performer. I hope I managed to capture that and put it on the stage."
"I feel like my place in a business like this is to show you that what you look like as a person will never matter more than what it is you can create as an artist."
"I can't say that I'm an activist in any way. I'm hoping that through the work of being a musician there's something positive that I can bring to the conversation or people's experience."
"If this helps to open your eyes to what is more just, what is more equal, then that is one of the things to take away from this experience today."
"Sitting with the unknown brought up some new things I'm interested in and things that I'm not interested anymore in in a very clear way that it might have just taken a lot more time to find had we not had that experience."
Revisiting our conversations with six of this year's nominees!
"There's a lot of magic in music that I am not in control of, but that I love being a part of. Maybe just triggering it and then sitting back and watching and listening."
"What struck me when I just got here was how it was just absolute fun. Now it's not just 'fun' for me anymore. It's trying to do the right thing."
"Let's be honest, men aren't telling those stories and I think that women have been shortchanged. I want to be part of changing that."