KEEPING IT 100
A century into celebrating Black History, we’re still here
“There is no higher praise for any project than that it is rare, true, and free. And isn’t that what art is all about? And isn’t that what we are all about?” Toni Morrison
On this 100th anniversary of Carter G. Woodson’s launch of Black History Week & the 50th year of month-long celebrations — and in honor of Toni Morrison’s birthday on Feb. 18th — I’m sharing 18 different cultural offerings in February that I’m excited about. For me, these each represent what is rare, true, and in the best sense, free. It’s a curated, eclectic list of film, books, visual art, theater, audio storytelling, photography and music -- mostly by and about people and in places I have a personal connection to. Plus what I’m currently obsessed with!
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ToMo
Speaking of Toni Morrison, her birthday is the launch date for a year-long statewide celebration dubbed “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison,” which kicks off in Columbus on 2/18 with acclaimed writers Hanif Abdurraqib and Namwali Serpell (her book, On Morrison, pubs on 2/17) exploring her work and influence. The celebration is both live streaming throughout the state and offered to the rest of us online. Registration info will soon be available here.
And for more ToMo love: I finally made it to my Brooklyn neighborhood’s newest bookstore, the warm and inviting Gladys Books & Wine in Bed-Stuy, and I truly love it! Gladys will host a communal reading of Beloved on Feb. 23rd and it promises to be both nurturing and restorative. RSVP here.
FILM
Film Forum, the iconic nonprofit cinema in lower Manhattan, holds a special place in my life. When I arrived in New York as a young woman, seeing indie films at Film Forum made me feel like a true New Yorker. I saw “Daughters of the Dust” there – in the front row! -- when it premiered in 1992. I’m happy to say that this month marks the announcement of Tabitha Jackson (former Sundance Film Festival director) as the new director of Film Forum. Exciting! And it’s my 8th year as a member of FF’s advisory committee. As such, I’ve been committed to helping the cinema become more diverse in both its programming and audience outreach. To that end: Showing this month are two must-see documentaries:
“Seeds”, about Black farm life in Georgia, is directed by debut filmmaker Brittany Shyne and executive produced by actor Tessa Thompson. This evocatively-shot doc has been shortlisted for the ’26 Academy Award and won the ’25 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, among other honors. It’s a tender, intimate story captured in exquisite black-and-white imagery that shows Black patriarchs fighting to preserve their family legacies. “Seeds” will close soon @ Film Forum —tomorrow, Feb. 5th. For tickets, go here. The film is also making its way this month to everywhere from Montana, Maine, Washington and San Francisco in the US to Australia, Estonia, Vancouver and London. Get more info here.
Also screening @ Film Forum in February is another fascinating documentary film, “Natchez”, by Suzannah Herbert, about a clash between memory and history in a small Mississippi town. The film is described as a “journey through an antebellum tourist destination at a crossroads as it grapples with a deeply troubled history that is so ingrained in its present, we’re left to wonder if it’s actually past at all.” Having won all kinds of awards, including Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film is making its way across the country, with February screenings in Memphis, Chicago, New Orleans and beyond. For more info, go here.
Here’s something I’m proud of: February 18 marks the one-year anniversary of “Naked Acts” becoming available on Blu-Ray and DVD, which I celebrate as an important form of art preservation that pushes against erasure. I tend to agree with New Yorker film critic Richard Brody that it may be a good idea to hold onto our physical media. Exclusion and censorship are real.
Another proud Mama moment: Two years after my film had its restoration premiere, venues are still programming it! On Feb. 5th, “Naked Acts” will screen with Ja’Tovia Gary’s beautiful short, “Quiet As It’s Kept” at Portland Art Museum. I love how guest programmers describe our two films as reflecting “a deep citational practice, drawing from cinematic and literary traditions to build their own unique contributions.” They’ve even created “informational zines” about the films to be shared with attendees. RSVP here.
Speaking of cinematic traditions, Maya S. Cade @ Black Film Archive has compiled her annual 28 Films for the 28 Days of Black History Month, and it’s truly an important collection of cinematic wonder and inspiration. As she notes:
In this moment of collective reckoning, Black cinematic history remains a prism of possibility that reflects the times and illuminates the possibilities of our beings. We can conceive of a world outside of the constraints placed upon us.
All 28 films are available for streaming vis-a-vis the Black Film Archive website — a “living register of Black films.”
When I was a young reporter in Philadelphia, I did two smart and profound things: I took a screenwriting workshop with the feminist writer/activist/filmmaker/educator Toni Cade Bambara at Scribe Video Center; I later took a creative writing class taught by her at the local YMCA. These two creative endeavors changed my understanding of myself as a writer. Luckily for us all, Bambara’s co-collaborator at Scribe Video Center (and its founder) Louis Massiah has just produced and co-directed a captivating documentary about the extraordinary Toni Cade Bambara entitled “TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing”. I got to see this beautiful film at DOC NYC last fall, and if you live in LA you can see it at Vidiots on Feb. 11th, featuring a talkback with Massiah. It’s also available for community groups, colleges and organizations to host screenings. A must-see!
BOOKS
No one curates reading lists better than the well-read Black girl herself, Glory Edim; I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing WRBG flourish since the launch of Glory’s “literary community dedicated to Black women.” On her Well-Read Black Girl Substack she shares her favorite new releases by Black women for BHM. That includes the most anticipated novel of the season, Kin by my Spelman sister Tayari Jones, and the most anticipated memoir, The Flower Bearers, by Rachel Eliza Griffiths.
Greenlight Bookstore is truly my local bookstore, located in the Brooklyn neighborhood where I began my life in New York, and where I’ve spent many important moments. I had my launch event for Love, Rita at Greenlight, been in conversation about The World According to Fannie Davis there, and interviewed other authors at lit talks. If you’re looking for a cozy spot to celebrate Black love in literature, check out the bookstore’s annual Authors Across Romance: Black Love on Feb. 9th, featuring Tia Williams and Haili Blassingame.
Wil Haygood is one of my oldest, dearest newspaper colleagues – we go way back! -- and one of the most prolific authors I know. Wil has written a whopping 10 books, including biographies of Adam Clayton Powell, Thurgood Marshall, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Plus, The Butler, a 2013 film, was based on an article he wrote for the Washington Post. (He went on to write the book version). His latest book, The War Within A War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home, publishes on Feb. 10th, and he’ll be doing book talks throughout Ohio (his home state) during BHM, as well as an event at Washington D.C.’s Politics and Prose on pub day. I love the cover!
The Center For Black Literature has been doing the good work for 20+ years, and I’m proud to have been part of its author community throughout the decades. Tomorrow, Feb. 5th, CBL will host a discussion on “Black Literature: A Device for
Equitable Change” @ Medgar Evers College. The talk features the incomparable MacArthur Fellow Majora Carter, the “urban revitalization strategist” whose work centers on building sustainable, equitable communities from within. She’ll be joined by Dr. Rachel Larya, author of Black Capitalists. RSVP here.
THEATER
I’m a Detroit native, and one of my greatest joys is seeing my hometown become an epicenter of cultural offerings. Most exciting to me is the work that the Detroit Public Theatre is doing. Now in their 11th season, the theatre currently features a production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, a reimagining of the events the night before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, just after he’s delivered his most memorable speech. Performances 2/8 thru 3/7. For more info, go here.
PODCASTS
I love podcasts, and I love storytelling, so no surprise that my favorite podcast these days is OUR ANCESTORS WERE MESSY, a Black history comedy podcast “about our ancestors and all their drama.” The creator and host, Nichole Hill, tells these compelling stories about Black folks in pre-Civil Rights era America who pursue better lives — while also making messes that land them in the gossip pages of Black newspapers! It’s a brilliant concept, totally self-funded and independently produced.
If you do nothing else to celebrate BHM, I urge you to listen to the first episode of the second season, “Eslanda & Paul Robeson: Revolutionaries in the Making”, which features as a star guest YA author extraordinaire Jason Reynolds. It’s so fun!
You can check out the Robeson episode here, or on your preferred pod-catcher. Warning: Once you listen, you’ll want to binge-listen to the entire first season! And you can also become a sustaining member, a great way to support independent media.
A podcast I just discovered is Liberation Is Lit, “where the power of storytelling meets the force of social change.” In her latest episode, host Tayler Simon interviews author Johnisha Matthews Levi about her memoir, Numbers Up: Cracking The Code Of An American Family. Johnisha and I are friends and literary sisters, as we’ve both written memoirs about our numbers-running parents.
VISUAL ART
My all-time favorite collage artist is the incomparable Deborah Roberts, and I’m thrilled that an exhibition of her new work opens on Feb. 12th at FLAG Art Foundation in NYC’s Chelsea art district; it runs through April 25th. Roberts will also be in conversation with TV writer/producer Mara Brock Akil on Feb. 13th. You can RSVP here.
MUSIC
I’ve been working on a film project about a 90s-era singer, and for inspiration I made a playlist of all the Black women vocalists whose music filled my CD shelves back in the day. Of course, that includes Lauryn Hill. So, I’m intrigued by the Candlelight Concert on Feb. 28th, where the Highline String Quartet will perform all her hit songs. Takes place at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn.
Eleven of Lauryn Hill’s top songs are on the program! Ticket info here. These Candlelight Concerts happen regularly throughout the city (including this 90s hip-hop on strings). Should be beautiful to both the eyes and ears.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I’m rounding out my list with an ongoing exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum: Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens is a breathtaking, expansive exhibit of the Malian photographer’s work; he’s known for having changed the face of portrait photography. It’s a unique photography exhibit, as it includes prints and portraits, but also textiles and Keita’s personal artifacts, which creates this immersive and intimate experience. Several years ago, the show’s guest curator, Catherine E. McKinley, was one of the authors I hosted at a reading I curated; she read from her amazing book, Indigo: In Search of the Color That Seduced The World. To see how she has evolved her love of African fabric and cultural practice to curate this work by Keïta – many of the textiles hanging throughout the exhibit are from her personal collection – is such a joy to witness. Catherine also edited this lavishly illustrated book that accompanies the exhibit, which is up until May 17th.
Also, MoMA has a concurrent exhibition of Keïta’s work as part of a group show, Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, that runs through July 25th.
May you feast on these and/or other Black artistic expressions throughout February — and beyond.
Happy Black History Month!
Excellent reading!
This is exciting! Thanks for the wisdom.