On Wednesday, October 19th Foundation For Letters hosted their fifth annual Fall Benefit at the IAC building honoring Vivica A. Fox, actress of the hit series Empire amongst others for forging a path for women of color in literature and celebrating young urban voices.
Communion, an award winning play written and directed by Canadian playwright, Daniel MacIvor made its U.S. debut at the Off-Broadway theater, Urban Stages New York.
As part of New York Fashion Week, designer Byron Lars presented Exclusive Inclusion an intimate fashion show of women of all shapes and sizes in partnership with KIA Presents and Style360 Monday at Metropolitan West.
In the spirit of New York’s Fashion Week, ESSENCE Magazine held it’s 3rd annual Street Style Block Party under the Manhattan Bridge archway in DUMBO, Brooklyn this past Saturday.
Last Thursday at Soho’s boutique Crosby Street Hotel there was a private screening of Ava DuVernay’s drama Queen Sugar. The series is a part of Oprah Winfrey Network and is created, directed and executive produced by Ava DuVernay alongside Oprah Winfrey.
Last Thursday, Rooftop Films hosted a sold out screening of Elizabeth Wood’s “White Girl.” A graduate of Columbia’s Film School, the narrative marks her directorial debut and premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
On Tuesday, June 28th there was a private screening of The a Word at the Museum of Arts & Design.
On Tuesday, 24th there was a private pre-launch event for Maxwell’s new album blackSUMMERS’night at the Samsung 837 building located in the heart of the Meatpacking district. Maxwell’s previous album, under the same title, BLACKsummers’night was released seven years prior in 2009. It forms part of the trilogy he initially promised and hence the similar names with difference of capitalization.
The Grammy winning singer/songwriter has unveiled the album cover and tracklisting for the 12-track LP which drops stores on July, 1st the same day he is scheduled to co-headline the ESSENCE Festival in New Orleans. Prior to that, he will take the stage for a performance at the BET Awards on June 2nd.
The event was followed by a private screening his “Lake By The Ocean” video from the album and a Q & A with Sway Calloway. Check out our exclusive coverage:
Sway Calloway: To sustain for 20 years in this business throughout the digital age with all the transformation- remember how many labels there used to be, everything now is condensed to one. A lot of artists get left on the editing floor but you sustained. It would be great to reflect back on 20 years and still be important to an audience like this.
Maxwell: Where do I begin, all I can say is that this is not just me number 1; everything that you hear and see is a family effort. Long story short, this is just a collection of loyalty. When you hear this, this is loyalty. We have been doing this musically and creatively and having each others backs as people. So when we come down and do the music, its very difficult in light of a very electronic era that we live in. I can’t play myself, I been doing it too long in a certain way to fall into a trend so I can make a certain amount of money. So it’s difficult but its great when you work with the people as long as you have because they are the reasons why I make the choices that I make that hopefully last longer then the time I live here.
Sway Calloway: I think what makes the music so relatable is the intangible you put into your lyrics; everything you do is a by product of what you experienced. You’ve done that consistently for so many years.
Maxwell: I’m a one take person. If I don’t feel emotionally prepared to do a song, I just won’t do it. The track will just sit there for years and years. It’s the fire inside of you that you know you are prepared to do that part. You make people believe you then. As far as Soul music is concerned, I want to keep the link going and show people that musicianship is still really important and writing lyrics that celebrate women.
The next record will not take as long as this one did. There was a lot that went on- losing family members, having my best friends have families- also the anxiety of having come back from BlackSummer’snight, the first installment. For me it was difficult to keep the music popping off from the last album. We have so many records now that it will be a lot sooner then the last was.
Wednesday, May 4th marked the opening night of the 23rd annual New York African Film Festival in association with The Film Society at the Lincoln Center. The celebrated film festival opened with the feature film, Tanna written and directed by Bentley Dean and Martin Butler. Winner of the Pietro Barzisa Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, the narrative takes place on the remote island of Tanna in the South Pacific. Based on a true story and featuring members of the Yakel tribe in their acting debuts, it follows young lovers who break off an arranged marriage created to bring peace to two warring tribes.
“We are very pleased to partner with African Film Festival, Inc. once again for the 23rd edition of the New York African Film Festival,” said Film Society of Lincoln Center Director of Programming Dennis Lim. “This year’s lineup is an extremely diverse and rewarding mix of features, documentaries, and short films that are an exemplary celebration of the continent’s rich and varied voices.”
The Festival will run from May 4th-10th, presenting works of 25 feature-length films and 27 short films from 26 countries, bringing another thrilling and multifaceted selection of African films from the continent and the Diaspora to New York audiences. Festival locations include the Walter Reade Theater, Maysles Cinema and the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAMcinématek with a closing night spotlight of Manthia Diawara’s Negritude: A Dialogue Between Wole Soyinka and Senghor and the shorts program Africa in New York.
Check out our exclusive interview with Mahen Bonetti, the Founder and Executive Director of African Film Festival as well with Bentley Dean, writer and director of Tanna.
Q: How did the Festival all begin?
Mahen Bonetti: I felt there was another perspective to who I am, that I did not see or hear and I discovered this world of cinema in the Diaspora because I came here as a teenager due to the political upheaval that was taking place in the late 60s and 70s. A lot of post independent African countries had this domino affect one after another. So my family came here and more then ever in the 80s is when I noticed coverage of Africa; it might have happened before but this is when I noticed it and that was due to the famine crisis that was taking place in Ethiopia at the time and of course Michael Jackson did “We Are the World.” And all these artists galvanized and advocated to push the envelope and then I thought where is the back story. There is a back story, colonialism and slavery does have its impact. Finally you were having Africans tell their story through the cinematic medium and whether it was good or bad, we were the gate keepers of it and I thought why don’t we at least insert our voice in this conversation through the cinema.
Q: When did you create the film and can you give us a little background into the piece?
Bentley Dean: It is an unusual production in that we started without a story. It’s filmed on a very remote island in the South Pacific called Tanna and where I lived with my wife and small children and my co-director for about 7 months in a very traditional village so the people who were starring in the film had actually never seen a film before- think grass huts, people running around in their traditional gear- penis sheets and grass skirts and still hunting with bows and arrows. So we worked up the story together, that’s what I wanted to do, I didn’t want to impose a story, I wanted it to come from the community, that way you get to learn more and where you are. And so that’s what we did and to tell you the truth, the main reason for going there was to expose my kids to a different environment then the suburbs of Melbourne and what we got was an extraordinary film. It was the icing on the cake really.
On Thursday, 21st at the Bow Tie Cinemas #ActuallySheCan, the inspiring female empowerment campaign by the leading women’s healthcare company Allergan, premiered three short films in association with Tribeca Digital Studios—Leaders of the Pack, directed by Erin Sanger, La Cocinera, directed by Emily Harrold and Chromat: Body Electric directed by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg at the Tribeca Film Festival. The films were all directed by female filmmakers and tell the stories of young women who are defying all odds, challenging convention, and “out to prove that #ActuallySheCan”.
Leaders of the Pack tells the story of two incredible women, as photojournalist Katie Orlinsky who captures Kristin Knight Pace, a musher in the 2016 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. La Cocinera brings us the inspiring story one of the youngest and most successful chefs in New York City, Daniela Soto-Innes. A 25 years old, Daniela is Chef de Cuisine of renowned Mexican restaurant Cosme in New York City. Chromat: Body Electric follows the story of emerging fashion designer Becca McCharen as she prepares her clothing line for New York Fashion Week. Becca’s work embraces women of all shapes and sizes and is made from innovative and technological stance.
After the screening award winning actress, Sarah Jessica Parker lead a Q&A discussion with the directors and documentary subjects about their life journeys, inspirations, and advice for others. Check out our exclusive coverage:
Sarah Jessica Parker: It’s really thrilling to sit in a darker theater and get to watch these wonderful and interesting well told stories about and by such amazing women and subjects and filmmakers in my opinion are incredible impressive people. These stories are filled with ambition and vision and struggle and triumph and not feel inspired and here more from all of you. I’m very pleased to be joined by you all tonight, talented female directors and compelling subjects. Each of these women are a perfect illustration of the power of ambition and conviction
Do you think ambition is an accurate portrayal as yourself as ambitious people and women?
Becca McCharen: I really work hard to get where I’m at. I’m really driven and motivated to be where we are at with Chromat. We want to do something bigger with every season. That drive and motivation comes with knowing that what we do matters to people who see our work. It’s a positive feeling because we know that we representation people who aren’t normally represented in fashion. That is one one thing that really drives me, the community that we are in and representing.
Katie Orlinsky: I’d say I’m ambitious. I’m always seeking knowledge and am always curious so that sort of of leads me to want to get to a certain level in my career were I have the opportunity to do so. It’s a funny word ambition. I would definitely consider myself ambitious but it’s never how I described myself.
–
Sarah Jessica Parker: When you are looking at your work, do you think your world view is the point of view of being a women or curiosity?
Katie Orlinsky: I’m a woman and I do tell a lot of stories that focus on women but not exclusively. The interesting part is that history is told by men and I’m documenting history and journalism has been a male dominated industry for a really long time and it’s moving out of that. Having my own vision and the why I see my stories is coming from a woman and that’s important I think for diversity of the history if the world.
Erin Sanger: Film has been a medium about humanity and if it’s men who are always making films or Caucasians, then how do we have a body of work that we can all appreciate if it’s only told from one perspective? As a documentary filmmaker working on a film like this makes you more aware and opens your eyes.
Sarah Jessica Parker: Tell us the courage of conviction when making a documentary?
Emily Harrold: One thing I love about Documentary is that it is so hard and you do have to care so much about the story you are telling. You probably won’t see money in the beginning but you have to begin shooting and show why the story is important and show it to the world and get it out there and if you care that much about, other people will. It’s very different then the native world in that way.