We believe in the power of archiving creative stories across the African diaspora.
My Colorful Nana
CASE STUDY#1
Exploring 21st-Century Documentary Depictions of the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969
"The film examines the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which took place on six Sundays between June 29 and August 24 at Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem, using professional footage of the festival that was filmed as it happened, stock news footage, and modern-day interviews with attendees, musicians, and other commentators to provide historical background and social context. Despite its large attendance and performers such as Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, The 5th Dimension, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mavis Staples, Blinky Williams, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Chambers Brothers, the festival is much less well known in the 21st century than is Woodstock (which took place on the same weekend as one of the days of the Harlem Cultural Festival). The filmmakers investigate this, among other topics."
- [AFRICAN AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY:] Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Directed by Joseph Patel, Vulcan Productions, 2022.
RESEARCH DATA:
Location: Harlem New York, USA
Time Period: Late 20th-century (1969)
KEY QUOTES:
“We are not African, we are not European; we are beautiful people. I am BLACK.”
“It was like going to war and we prevailed on a wave of music.” (-Performer @ the festival)
“It smelt like shea butter and chicken.”
“Nobody cared about Harlem.”
“Nina Simone gave us hope.” (Charlayne Hunter-Gault, NYTs)
“That concert [the Harlem Cultural Festival] was like a rose coming through cement.”
“Before–– my world was like black and white and then that concert [the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969] took my life into color.”
“We as a people, especially today, need to feel like a family… lifting each other up.”
WATCH & LISTEN
Depictions of the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969:
CASE STUDY#2
Exploring Twentieth-Century African Diasporic Feminist Embodiment & Political Discourse; Josephine Baker,
POLITICAL QUESTION:
PERFORMANCE QUESTION: How are some Black female performers filling this gap in international Black feminist discourse by communicating with one another (across the transatlantic) through the use of their unique sonic capabilities and through their strategic physical gestures?
Case Study: [VISUAL:] “March on Washington Had One Female Speaker: Josephine Baker.” Washington Post, 20 May 2023. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/march-on-washington-had-one-female-speaker-josephine-baker/2011/08/08/gIQAHqhBaJ_story.html.
Case Study: [DISCURSIVE:] BlackPast. “(1963) Josephine Baker, ‘Speech at the March on Washington.”, 23 Sept. 2019, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1963-josephine-baker-speech-march-washington/
KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS
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