FREE EVENT Screening "Making Black America" Ep. 4: Life Beyond the Veil

900 West Daisy L Gatson Bates Drive,Little Rock AR 72202

01 March, 2023

Description

About this event  Philander Smith College and Arkansas PBS present this free screening featuring the fourth episode from the documentary series, "Making Black America: Through the Grapevine," a four-part series from executive producer, host and writer Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., series producer/director Stacey L. Holman and producer/director Shayla Harris.  Episode 4: Life Beyond the VeilDespite the gains of legal desegregation, there still remained a fervent desire for all-Black spaces and institutions that provided a safe place for Black people to debate, organize, and celebrate. In Hour 4, as the community grew increasingly fractured by class, political, and generational divisions in the post-Civil Rights era, we will explore how Black cultural and political movements embraced a radical consciousness that championed Black beauty and the Black gaze. Tensions mounted about whether integration or separation was the best strategy. But, by the end of the twentieth century, an aggressive backlash against Black progress and the election of the first Black president forced networks like Black Lives Matter to become digitized and decentralized as they demanded that America confront its failures and live up to its ideals. But, from Black Power to Black Twitter, the black community has never been monolithic. Our host, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., speaks with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders and activists about the impact of integration on Black institutions, the cultural significance of Black Power, the Black Arts movement, hip hop, the contentious political debates between Black nationalists and Black elected officials at the 1972 National Black Political Convention, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, the social media phenomenon of Black Twitter, and the meaning of Black joy in a post-COVID, post-George Floyd world. Major historical characters and events include Amiri Baraka, Toni Morrison, Larry Levan, the death of Trayvon Martin, and Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday.