#7 Sunday Shade (I declined an interview with Raoul Peck, Going to Mars with Nikki Giovanni, Art ed. New York, Mr Eazi's art explosion, Women Revolt, Lebohang Kganye's win & Brown History rocks)

A slow scroll along the Black imagination

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Silver Dollar Road, Dir. Raoul Peck

I could kick myself for the moment that I turned down the chance to interview Academy-Award Nominee Raoul Peck. He had just released I am Not Your Negro and his team approached me to interview Peck about the work. But, I was in production for Season Four and as an independent I just couldn’t justify adding research, script planning, recording and editing to my rosta of to-do’s. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Silver Dollar Road follows the story of the Reels family as told by the matriarch Mamie Reels Ellison and her niece Kim Renee Duhon, two fierce women defending their rights and fighting to protect their ancestor's land and their brothers and uncles Melvin and Licurtis, who were imprisoned for eight years - the longest sentence for civil contempt in North Carolina history.

This documentary highlights the ways the legal system is exploited to limit land ownership in the Black community and further contributes to the racial wealth gap. You can watch it here on Amazon Prime.

Hauser & Wirth Learning Exchange: Art Education Matters: Livestream

On Friday I tuned into a series of conversations led by artists, educators and scholars highlighting their collaborative, interdisciplinary and dynamic approaches to learning in New York.

Panelists included Angel Otero, José Lerma, Rika Burnham, Adjoa Jones de Almeida, Mickalene Thomas, Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, Jane South, Davinia Kameka-Gregory, Filippa Christofalou, OreOluwa Badaki. It was chaired by the ever inspiring Debbie Hillyerd, Hauser & Wirth’s Senior Director of Learning. I had to head into meetings just before the end of the conversation between Rika Burnham and Adjoa Jones de Almeida, so I got in touch with Hauser & Wirth to see if the sessions were being recorded for those who missed them. Great news - you can watch in full on the Hauser & Wirth website or by signing up to their newsletter, via the website. My collabs with this gallery has been a career highlight, simply because they fully supported the creative process and my disability needs (rare in my partnerships experience). If you missed our collabs, search for Frank Bowling: Unemcumbered Voices in Curated Spaces (collab 1 x4 episodes) and Interludes (collab 2 x6 episodes) wherever you listen to Shade Podcast.

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project on HBO and BFI. Dir. Joe Brewster/Michèle Stephenson.

Poet Nikki Giovanni gets the praise she deserves in this Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Documentary Prize-winner. The film covers her life and the historical periods she lived through from the civil rights movement and Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter. This will be full of Giovanni gems of wisdom.