21ST CENTURY ARCHIVES

CASE STUDY#1

"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.

Location: Harlem New York, USA

Time Period: Late 20th-century (1969)

“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.”