Talking to the Screen

There is a phenomenon that Black people talk to the screen while watching TV. We are one with all things I guess or it the call and response gene!

Regardless of the reasoning behind it, I felt odd last month when I screened an 11 minute version of my documentary and the 30 person audience was silent. Why weren't they making grunts or sighs? Was it boring or did they not get it.

As part if the Black Collective on DC History, I took full advantage of the membership and screened my work in progress. Held at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the event was fabulous. I had never watched it with more than one person. The energy in the room and the information exchange that occurred, without words, reaffirmed that I am doing the right thing.

At the end of the screening, I realized that this room, predominately Black, was enthralled and attentive to the story. They were hungry for more and I took their comments into consideration as I sat down to re-write my final script.

Thank you...Thank you...for listening and watching.

Birth of Documentary Script

I have been working on a final script for my documentary on Congressman Robert Smalls. I imagine it is like giving birth - watching what you do and say, because it may have a profound effect on the audience. I could forever scar them - repel them from Black History or worse - produce pity.

Instead, my intention is to illuminate the sense of passion and the humanity of our Americans. Yes, the majority of Africans did not willing come to Americans but the majority stayed after the Emancipation Proclamation. There were no acts of ethnic cleansing towards the oppressor nor did we become saboteurs. How unlike most victims of genocide!

I find the beauty of the history is in the triumph over human condition. Resilience. Determination. Intelligence. Legacy.

Robert Smalls Documentary

I am steadily working on the final script for my documentary - Congressman Robert Smalls: A Patriot's Journey from Slavery to Capitol Hill.

This has indeed been a journey for me as well. The idea to do this documentary came to me over 10 years ago when I was living in NYC (Brooklyn to be exact). As Poli Sci major, I was passionate about all things political and African American.

Every year the Congressional Black Caucus puts on a week of activities centered around policy discussions. It is intellectual stimulation with style. In the programme, there is a list of all the Black US Congressmen. I noticed the names from the 19th century. None of them were mentioned in any of my textbooks from high school or college.

So I began researching their histories and role in American society. Even more importantly, I wondered aloud - Why are their stories never told?

Wanted: Aunt Jemima's son look-a-like for cover model shot

The portrayal of Blacks as characters in a bad play seems to be eternal. The recent discussion behind the Mexican stamps of Memin Pinguin smells and sounds like yearly outrage African Americans go through when a well-known person defames us - congressmen, sportscasters, newscasters.

The response of Mexico's black population is important for the fact very few people know that they exist. Why?

Why can't Blacks become part of the society as opposed to the comic relief of society's vacation novela? Would that mean that racial differences become obsolete? Could society then justify mistreatment of its brother/sister who has the same color blood and origin?

Voice from the past

"It is these broken utterances can in any way help to a clearer vision and a truer pulse-beat in studying the Nation's Problem, this Voice by a Black Woman of the South will not have been raised in vain." ~Anna Julia Cooper (August 10, 1859 -1964)
Photo: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center,
Howard University

After spending a lovely evening with my dear friend, Shirley, I was intrigued by her research about one of America's pioneering feminists -Anna J. Cooper. Shirley is a true scholar in the way she brings her research to light and draws you into the modern day relevance and depth of the words left behind by the subject. (Trust me, you will be reading her books very soon).

Anna J. Cooper was an educator and writer, was born a slave in Raleigh, NC. Educated in 1867 at St. Augustine's Normal and Collegiate Institute in Raleigh, she earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Oberlin College in Ohio. In 1925 at the age of 65, she earned the Ph.D. degree from the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Dr. Cooper taught on the college level for several years before coming to Washington, D.C. as principal of M Street High School (now Dunbar High School) from 1902 to 1906. However much of her career was dedicated to the Frelinghuysen University in Washington, D.C., an adult education night school that offered courses in academic, religious and trade programs for blacks. Of the city's many universities and trade schools, only one accepted black students.

Dr. Cooper, president of Frelinghuysen University from 1930 to 1940, was a staunch proponent of education for females. She believed strongly that education was the key to social equality for women and that access to higher education was cr

Excavation Supports New Philadelphia, IL established by Freed Slave in early 1800s

Wow- this is such a great tool. Already I learned about an area in Illinois with a rich African American history, seldom told. Thanks Nat and Josephus!