Joséphine Baker: Black Diva in a White Man’s World (Germany, 2006; 45 min.)

Annette von Wangenheim, Director

A WDR (Westdeutschser Rundfunk) television production

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, in cooperation with the Seattle Art Museum Community Partnership

Program presents the Seattle premiere of Annette von Wangenheim's documentary. An examination of Baker's life and performance, both as a mirror of European colonial fantasies and as a symbol of the 20^th century's Black consciousness movement.

Tuesday, January 26 at 7:30 PM at the Seattle Art Museum, downtown Seattle, 1300 First Avenue. Admission: suggested donation of $5 at the door. A panel discussion with visual and performing artists will follow the screening.

This documentary focuses on Joséphine Baker's life and work from a black perspective and presents the artist both as a mirror of European colonial fantasies and as a symbol of the worldwide black consciousness movement of the 20th century. Pioneers of black dance, such as Geoffrey Holder, Arthur Mitchell, Carmen de Lavallade, Maurice Hines and Elsa Wolliaston, recall their stage appearances and encounters with Baker; biographers and historians comment on well-known and unknown footage and photographs. Clichés that have persisted to this day are deconstructed and the underlying facts are set in a new historical context. Joséphine Baker was the first black diva who thought and acted in global dimensions. She became a star in Europe and a world-wide symbol of peace and a better understanding among nations and different cultures.

The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival (LHAAFF) is an annual event presented by the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in central Seattle. The LHAAFF presents films from independent filmmakers from around the world. The LHAAFF features panel discussions, screenplay readings, training workshops, matinée screenings for middle and high school youth and in-depth discussions with filmmakers, industry professionals and local community leaders.

The Underground Railroad, a project of the annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, is a fall - through -winter film and discussion series. Using the metaphor of a series of strategically located "Safe Houses" in Seattle neighborhoods, the Underground Railroad is a series of intimate screenings designed to build community across the aisle and across neighborhoods. Each Safe House along the trail brings forth a different provocative work about African American life, leading to 'freedom' at the annual Langston Hughes African American Film Festival in April. www.langstonblackfilmfest.org

Pressure Cooker Screens November 24 @ 7pm

Pressure Cooker Screens November 24 @ 7pm

Location: SOHO Coffee, corner of 20^th Avenue South and Yesler Way, Seattle's Central District

There's a force-of-nature behind the door to Room 325 at Frankford High School in Philadelphia. Her name is Wilma Stephenson and she teaches Culinary Arts. Infamously blunt, Mrs. Stephenson runs a "boot camp" at Frankford, disciplining her students into capable chefs and responsible students. Behind her tough-talking exterior is a teacher, who cares passionately about getting the best out of her students and making sure they receive the opportunities – including scholarships to top programs – that will help them escape the meager minimum-wage job opportunities of Northeast Philly.

Wilma Stephenson has taught at Frankford for 40 years, long before Culinary Arts became part of the school's curriculum. She can be cantankerous, and she knows it, but she will do anything for the students who get with the program and show true promise and the hunger to succeed. Those who fall short of her discipline will not be missed; many will drop out before the first week is over.

The documentary documents Mrs. Stephenson and those students committed enough to surrender themselves to her enlightened despotism through both semesters in Culinary Arts. By the end of the school year, 13 of her students will have made it through the gauntlet. These seniors aspire to scholarships that can enable them to escape the status quo of Northeast Philly and move on to a future of more opportunities. Mrs. Stephenson spells it out on the first day of school by telling the newcomers that 11 members of last year's class earned over $750,000 in scholarships, a staggering amount. At a school where over 40% of students don't even make it to their senior year, Ms. Stephenson's class stands in stark contrast. She offers these kids her version of the American Dream: You choose a realistic goal. You work hard. You work the system. You get out of Northeast Philly.

At the end of their school year, there is a one-day scholarship competition, where top Philadelphia chefs judge the students' skills and talent. But, in the end, the scholarships are even more dependent on the kids' capacity for sustained drive throughout their senior year. Can they endure the stressful challenges wrought by their home lives – having to hold minimum-wage jobs after school, and acting as surrogate parents to their siblings –
while still finding the motivation to wake up at 6AM to get to Mrs. Stephenson's class early enough to master their crepes and tournee potatoes…

FEBRUARY ONE Civil Rights Era doc shows February 19th

FEBRUARY ONE
Documentary: 61 mins
Directors: Dr. Steven Channing & Rebecca Cerese
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Location:MezzaLuna
2608 S Judkins St
Seattle, WA 98144
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Admission: $5 suggested donation
Langston Hughes African American Film Festival Info line: 206-326-1088

ABOUT THE FILM


Organization of American Historians Erik Barnouw Award Honorable Mention Recipient

In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history. February One tells the inspiring story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins that revitalized the Civil Rights Movement and set an example of student militancy for the coming decade. This moving film shows how a small group of determined individuals can galvanize a mass movement and focus a nation’s attention on injustice.

The Greensboro Four, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil, were close friends at North Carolina A&T University before they became political activists. Two of the four had grown up where segregation was not legal, while another’s father was active in the NAACP. They recount how the idea for the sit-in grew out of those late night “bull sessions” that make college years so rich. Prof. William Chafe helps set the historical context the four young men confronted: the Civil Rights Movement had stalled since the Brown decision and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On the night of January 31, 1960 the four dared each other to do something that would change the South and their own lives forever. They decided to sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro the next day.

On February 1st, dressed in their Sunday best, the four men sat down at the lunch counter. Frank McCain remembers that he knew then this would be the high point of his life, “I felt clean...I had gained my manhood by that simple act.” The four were refused service; when they did not leave the store the manager closed the lunch counter. In the days that followed they were joined by more students from local Black colleges and a few white students who also sat-in at other lunch counters in Greensboro. Prof. Vincent Harding reminds us that the Civil Rights Movement was the first major social movement to be covered by television news so word of the events in Greensboro spread across the nation like a prairie fire. Within just a few days students were sitting in at lunch counters in fifty-four cities around the South.

Greensboro’s civic leadership pressured the President of North Carolina A&T to halt the protests but he counseled the students to follow their own consciences. Finally after months of protests the Woolworth management quietly integrated its lunch counter. The wave of direct action started by the Greensboro Four coalesced in the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. February One not only fills in one of the most important chapters in the Civil Rights Movement, it reminds us that this was a movement of ordinary people motivated to extraordinary deeds by the need to assert their basic human dignity. It provides an eloquent argument to today’s generation of students that involvement in the politics of our own time is a vital part of any college education.

Underground Railroad Film Series continues Feb. 19

FEBRUARY ONE
Documentary: 61 mins
Directors: Dr. Steven Channing & Rebecca Cerese
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009
Location:MezzaLuna
2608 S Judkins St
Seattle, WA 98144
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Admission: $5 suggested donation
Langston Hughes African American Film Festival Info line: 206-326-1088

ABOUT THE FILM


Organization of American Historians Erik Barnouw Award Honorable Mention Recipient

In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history. February One tells the inspiring story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins that revitalized the Civil Rights Movement and set an example of student militancy for the coming decade. This moving film shows how a small group of determined individuals can galvanize a mass movement and focus a nation’s attention on injustice.

The Greensboro Four, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil, were close friends at North Carolina A&T University before they became political activists. Two of the four had grown up where segregation was not legal, while another’s father was active in the NAACP. They recount how the idea for the sit-in grew out of those late night “bull sessions” that make college years so rich. Prof. William Chafe helps set the historical context the four young men confronted: the Civil Rights Movement had stalled since the Brown decision and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. On the night of January 31, 1960 the four dared each other to do something that would change the South and their own lives forever. They decided to sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro the next day.

On February 1st, dressed in their Sunday best, the four men sat down at the lunch counter. Frank McCain remembers that he knew then this would be the high point of his life, “I felt clean...I had gained my manhood by that simple act.” The four were refused service; when they did not leave the store the manager closed the lunch counter. In the days that followed they were joined by more students from local Black colleges and a few white students who also sat-in at other lunch counters in Greensboro. Prof. Vincent Harding reminds us that the Civil Rights Movement was the first major social movement to be covered by television news so word of the events in Greensboro spread across the nation like a prairie fire. Within just a few days students were sitting in at lunch counters in fifty-four cities around the South.

Greensboro’s civic leadership pressured the President of North Carolina A&T to halt the protests but he counseled the students to follow their own consciences. Finally after months of protests the Woolworth management quietly integrated its lunch counter. The wave of direct action started by the Greensboro Four coalesced in the formation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. February One not only fills in one of the most important chapters in the Civil Rights Movement, it reminds us that this was a movement of ordinary people motivated to extraordinary deeds by the need to assert their basic human dignity. It provides an eloquent argument to today’s generation of students that involvement in the politics of our own time is a vital part of any college education.

NOVEMBER 20: AKIRA’S HIP HOP SHOP (DIRECTOR'S CUT) & ELI’S LIQUOR STORE

African American and Asian American interactions

AKIRA’S HIP-HOP SHOP

(37 mins., special public screening of the director’s cut!)

Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine, 2000 Jackson Street (Metro bus #14)
Admission: Suggested donation of $5.00
Filmmaker Joe Doughrity will be present for a Q&A session!

Written and directed by Joe Doughrity

Akira’s Hip Hop Shop stars James Kyson Lee (”Heroes”) and Emayatzy Corinealdi (”The Young & the Restless”).

An interracial love story about a Japanese immigrant in love with hip hop who meets a young Black woman with a passion for Asian cuisine and culture.

ELI’S LIQUOR STORE 16 mins.

Written and directed by Arnold Chun and Alonzo Jones . Co-produced by Yealee Song and Joseph H. Shim.

Set in Los Angeles’ Koreatown circa 1999. It’s the story of Elijah Gooden, a 43-year-old African-American man from Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Georgia Tech University and worked in corporate America before moving his family to Los Angeles to start his own business. He and his family experience culture shock and adversity as they struggle to build their livelihood in an area dominated by Asian-American business owners.

…....................

Joseph Doughrity - Film Makers Bio:

Joseph Doughrity (”Joe D.”) is a writer, producer, and director. The son of an educator, Joe grew up an avid reader and developed hobbies ranging from sports to comics, videogames, and a fascination with Japanese culture. His first job in Hollywood was as a Production Assistant on John Singleton’s debut film “Boyz N the Hood”. This was the start of a five-year collaboration with the Oscar nominated director including serving as his personal assistant on the films “Poetic Justice” and “Higher Learning”.

Joe recognized the significance of the Internet early and worked in the dotcom industry beginning in 1999 as a Content Provider for new media startup Psylum, Incorporated. When Psylum was purchased by USA Networks’ Sci-fi Channel, Joe was chosen to re-launch the Psycomic website and recruited iconic filmmaker Kevin Smith (”Clerks”) to write a weekly column that became the basis of his book Kevin Smith Speaks. Psycomic became a leading destination on the Internet for fans of comic books and graphic novels. He continues to work on the web serving as the Video Editor for PopCultureShock.com, a leading news, review, and interview site focusing on comics, movies and videogames.

Joe has written and edited for comic books (for Caliber Press, publishers of The Crow and U.N. Force), magazines (The Source, Rappages, Straight From the Lip), and motion pictures (see partial credits below). As a documentarian, he created electronic press kits for the urban romance “Jason’s Lyric” and Tony Bill’s “A Home of our Own”. Joe’s “Seven Days in Japan”, a documentary he wrote, produced and directed, won Best Documentary at the 2005 San Diego Comic-con Film Festival beating out films which cost ten times its modest budget. “Seven Days in Japan” went on to screen at the Pacific Media Expo and premiered on cable’s BET-Jazz channel in February of 2007.

As a screenwriter, Joe has written for studios and production companies such as HBO (”Wheels of Steel: The KRS One/Scott La Rock Story”), Mandalay Films (”Grandmaster Flash”) and New Line Cinema. His recent scripts include “Motown Miracle: Soul on Ice”, the true story of a Black hockey team from his native Detroit, “Cornerstore”, a day in the life look at a liquor store, and “Akira’s Hip hop Shop”, an interracial romantic dramedy about an Asian man and a Black woman.

Joseph received his BFA from Columbia College-Hollywood where he majored in Cinema Studies. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

NOVEMBER 20 – AKIRA’S HIP HOP SHOP and ELI’S LIQUOR STORE

African American and Asian American interactions

NOVEMBER 20 – AKIRA’S HIP HOP SHOP and ELI’S LIQUOR STORE
Time: 7PM
Location: Hidmo Eritrean Cuisine, 2000 South Jackson Street
Admission: Suggested donation of $5.00


AKIRA’S HIP-HOP SHOP 37 mins. (special public screening of the director’s cut!) 37 mins.
Written and directed by Joe Doughrity Akira’s Hip Hop Shop stars James Kyson Lee (”Heroes”) and Emayatzy Corinealdi (”The Young & the Restless”). An interracial love story about a Japanese immigrant in love with hip hop who meets a young Black woman with a passion for Asian cuisine and culture.
Winner - Best Director, Director's Guild of America Awards 2007


screened with


ELI’S LIQUOR STORE 16 mins.
Written and directed by Arnold Chun and Alonzo Jones . Co-produced by Yealee Song and Joseph H. Shim.

A poignant story set in Los Angeles’ Koreatown circa 1999. It’s the story of Elijah Gooden, a 43-year-old African-American man from Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Georgia Tech University and worked in corporate America before moving his family to Los Angeles to start his own business. He and his family experience culture shock and adversity as they struggle to build their livelihood in an area dominated by Asian-American business owners.

Post screening discussion featuring Julie Chang Schulman
Northwest Regional Coordinator for Hip Hop Congress

....
Film Makers Bio:

Joseph Doughrity (”Joe D.”) is a writer, producer, and director. The son of an educator, Joe grew up an avid reader and developed hobbies ranging from sports to comics, videogames, and a fascination with Japanese culture. His first job in Hollywood was as a Production Assistant on John Singleton’s debut film “Boyz N the Hood”. This was the start of a five-year collaboration with the Oscar nominated director including serving as his personal assistant on the films “Poetic Justice” and “Higher Learning”.

Joe recognized the significance of the Internet early and worked in the dotcom industry beginning in 1999 as a Content Provider for new media startup Psylum, Incorporated. When Psylum was purchased by USA Networks’ Sci-fi Channel, Joe was chosen to re-launch the Psycomic website and recruited iconic filmmaker Kevin Smith (”Clerks”) to write a weekly column that became the basis of his book Kevin Smith Speaks. Psycomic became a leading destination on the Internet for fans of comic books and graphic novels. He continues to work on the web serving as the Video Editor for PopCultureShock.com, a leading news, review, and interview site focusing on comics, movies and videogames.

Joe has written and edited for comic books (for Caliber Press, publishers of The Crow and U.N. Force), magazines (The Source, Rappages, Straight From the Lip), and motion pictures (see partial credits below). As a documentarian, he created electronic press kits for the urban romance “Jason’s Lyric” and Tony Bill’s “A Home of our Own”. Joe’s “Seven Days in Japan”, a documentary he wrote, produced and directed, won Best Documentary at the 2005 San Diego Comic-con Film Festival beating out films which cost ten times its modest budget. “Seven Days in Japan” went on to screen at the Pacific Media Expo and premiered on cable’s BET-Jazz channel in February of 2007.

As a screenwriter, Joe has written for studios and production companies such as HBO (”Wheels of Steel: The KRS One/Scott La Rock Story”), Mandalay Films (”Grandmaster Flash”) and New Line Cinema. His recent scripts include “Motown Miracle: Soul on Ice”, the true story of a Black hockey team from his native Detroit, “Cornerstore”, a day in the life look at a liquor store, and “Akira’s Hip hop Shop”, an interracial romantic dramedy about an Asian man and a Black woman.

Joseph received his BFA from Columbia College-Hollywood where he majored in Cinema Studies. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

BOBBIE AND JEROME play opens!

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center Presents World Premiere Play: Bobbie and Jerome

Performances: October 7-26, 2008
Opening/Press Night: October 10, 2008 7:30 pm
Live Theatre Week: Stonecarving Open Studio Tour 10/13 6-8pm
Free Night of Theater 10/16

Seattle WA, -- Much like stonecarvers themselves, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center Artistic Director Jacqueline Moscou and local playwright Daniel W. Owens have been perfecting, sculpting, and shaping the play Bobbie and Jerome for over four years. They met in 1992 and planned for years to work together. In 2004 Owens asked Moscou to set up an early reading and work through some rewrites. Immediately Moscou said yes, and together they readied Bobbie and Jerome for the LHPAC stage.

Connecting with the Stonemason's Union and a seasoned stone carving professional to consult was crucial to the play's development and success. West Seattle stone carver Sabah Al-Dhaher joined the creative team and was tasked with leading a special intensive "Stonecarving Boot Camp" for the playwright, director, and actors. "I will never look at a rock the same way again! My hands are still recovering," says local actor G. To'mas Jones. who plays the role of Bobbie.

Bobbie and Jerome is the captivating story of two cousins fighting their addictions, their joined past, and each other. The complex art of stone carving is at the play's core and an authentic depiction of the craft is crucial to the play's success. Errol is the "Stone Yard's" master mason who admires both Bobbie and Jerome for their talent as stone carvers, but also fears for their futures. Set in the stone yard of a gothic Harlem cathedral in 1998, this world premiere drama opens a lens into the lives of two men struggling to save the Stone Yard and settle a past score.

"Bobbie and Jerome embodies everything LHPAC is about. We create a home for African American arts and its artists, and are dedicated to the development of new works," says Jacque Moscou. Throughout Bobbie and Jerome's development process LHPAC has pooled creative resources and connected with many different corners of the artistic community. Moscou continues, "Art transforms people's lives. This play drives that message home. Personally, connecting with art through stonecarving has been a blast!"

On October 13 the general public is invited to get a taste of "Stonecarving Boot Camp" and chat with the actors, director, playwright, and local stone carver Sabah Al-dhaher at his open studio tour. This free event will be held from 6-8 pm at 3838

Delridge Way SW and is part of Theatre Puget Sound's Live Theatre Week.

LHPAC always encourages new audiences to experience the thrill of Live Theatre. October 7 is a "Pay-What-You-Can-Preview" performance and LHPAC will participate in Live Theatre Week's FREE Night of theatre on October 16th.

Bobbie and Jerome, written by Daniel W. Owens and directed by Jacqueline Moscou, will have its world premiere at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center October 7-26, 2008. Marcel DavisG. To'mas Jones plays his cousin Bobbie. Ron Davids plays the master mason Errol. The Set Designer who brings a stone yard indoors is Tommer Peterson. Sound Designer Herbert Thompson will add jazz elements to the production. Doris Black will design the costumes and Stephen Deibert is the lighting designer.
plays Jerome and

Bobbie and Jerome is recommended for ages 12 and older. Performances will be held at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center at 17th & Yesler in Seattle. Previews are Oct.7-9 at 7:30 pm. Opening Night is October 10 at 7:30 w

ith a special "Taste of Harlem" reception afterwards. Shows run Thursdays - Sundays at 7:30 p.m. with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays (no 2 p.m. matinee on Oct 26).

Advance ticket prices are $20 for adults; $15 for youth and seniors; and $24 day of show at the door. A special discount is offered to groups of 10 or more. Ticket Line: 206-386-1177. Tickets are available at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center and through Brown Paper Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006.

Dan Owens'

play Mutambi and Lindstrom was read in 2006 at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey. Stage/screen and television actor John Amos read the role of Mutambi. Owens' The Measuring Stick [aka The Chisler] was staged in 2003 as part of the 2nd Annual Seattle FringeACT Festival of New Original Works. He wrote the book for the musical Little Ham which received "rave" reviews in the New York Times and The New Yorker in December 2001. Little Ham was also produced Off-Broadway in the Fall of 2002. He also wrote the book for The MoreYou Get - The More You Want, which was produced Off-Broadway by the FDCAC. In 2002 his play Forever My Darlin' had an extended run at Chicago's ETA Theater. And in the summer of 1999 Mutambi and Lindstrom was produced at the 15th Annual National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

In 1997, Owenswas commissioned by Seattle's ACT Theatre, as part of their "FirstACT" play development project, to write Aunt Lou and Miss Sara. His 1992 play, The Gang on the Roofd his work produced by: The New Federal Theater, The Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center (FDCAC), The Negro Ensemble, The George Street Playhouse (New Brunswick, New Jersey), and The Westport Summer Playhouse (Westport, Conn.). He was twice a participant in the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference (Waterford, Conn.) and was the recipient of a Rockefeller Grant for Playwriting. Mr. Owens graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with a B.A. in English, attended Yale School of Drama, and receivedhis M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a native of Malden, Massachusetts and currently lives in Seattle with his daughter Gabriela. was one of six grant recipients from the Fund for new American Plays - Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. That play was successfully produced by the Capital Theater Company in Albany, New York. While living in New York City Mr. Owens ha

Sabah Al-Dhaher was born in Nasriyah, Iraq. At the age of fifteen he was accepted to the Institute of Fine Arts in

Basra, Iraq, where he lived and received his training in classical art, graduating

first in his class in 1989. Al-Dhaher fled Iraq in 1991 due to his involvement in a failed uprising against the regime of Saddam Hussein at the end of the first Gulf war. After spending 2 ? years in a refugee camp in the desert of Saudi Arabia, he came to the U.S. as a political refugee in 1993. Al-Dhaher currently teaches stone carving at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. Visit www.aldhaher.net for more information.

The Fall 2008 Underground Railroad series begins Sept. 24!

The Underground Railroad Film Series is the neighborhood participation component of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center’s African American Film Festival. The URFS uses the metaphor of the Underground Railroad to illuminate that community can exist over many miles and many backgrounds with one common cause. Each month from September through February, at various ‘safe houses’ in greater King County, the Underground Railroad Film Series partners with community groups, organizations and traditionally marginalized populations to host a screening of films by or about Black people that intersect across cultures, providing opportunities for community engagement and self-reflection. This moveable feast of provocative films is deepened with post-screening panels that provide context, stimulate thoughtful discussions that wind back to the Underground Railroad: Community can exist over many miles and many backgrounds with one common cause: Human integrity for all.


SEPT. 24: HOW DO I LOOK Documentary – USA 2006; 80min Director- Wolfgang Busch A chronicle of the gay Harlem Ball tradition, featuring the gritty and glamorous testimony of African American and Latino gay & transgendered people who excited the runways of Harlem and beyond. Panel Discussion to follow. Time: 7:00 pm Location: Central Cinema, 21st @ Union streets, central Seattle. Admission: $5.00 Pictured: Anthony Revlon. Photo credit: Matusha. Presented in partnership with the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film festival, which begins October 17!