Stephen Tourlentes, Wyoming State Death House Prison, Rawlins, Wyoming, 2000
Courtesy the artist and Carroll and Sons, Boston

Most prisons and jails across the United States do not allow prisoners to have access to cameras. At a moment when 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the US, 3.8 million people are on probation, and 870,000 former prisoners are on parole, how can images tell the story of mass incarceration when the imprisoned don’t have control over their own representation? How can photographs visualize a reality that disproportionately affects people of color, and, for many, remains outside of view?

Lucas Foglia, Vanessa and Lauren watering, GreenHouse Program, 2014. Courtesy the artist and Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, New York

This exhibition coincides with the publication of “Prison Nation,” Aperture magazine’s spring issue organized with the scholar Nicole R. Fleetwood, an expert on art’s relation to incarceration. Addressing the unique role photography plays in creating a visual record of a national crisis, this exhibition and issue are accompanied by a series of six public programs—featuring speakers such as Nigel Poor, Aliya Hana Hussain, Keith Calhoun, Chandra McCormich, Jamel Shabazz, Deborah Luster, Bruce Jackson, Shani Jamila, Jesse Krimes, Sable Elyse Smith, Joseph Rodriguez, and more—all to take place at Aperture Foundation’s gallery.

Photographer unknown, Prison Rock Band, June 26, 1975. Courtesy Nigel Poor, San Quentin Archive and Haines Gallery, San Francisco

Panel Discussion: Art & Incarceration

Deborah Luster, Layla “Roach” Roberts (Inquisitor), fromthe series Passion Play, 2012–13. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

How does incarceration impact art making for incarcerated artists and non-incarcerated artists concerned with the criminal justice system? This panel brings together a range of artists and figures who facilitate art projects with incarcerated individuals. This discussion is moderated by Nicole R. Fleetwood, contributing guest editor of Aperture’s “Prison Nation” magazine with Panelists – Jesse Krimes, artist and activist, Aliya Hana Hussain of Center for Constitutional Rights, an attorney who represents detainees/artists at Guantanamo Bay and Joseph Rodriguez, photographer.

Join the Discussion

Wednesday, February 28 at 7pm
Aperture Gallery and Bookstore
547 West 27th Street New York, NY

During our Digital Diaspora Family Reunion roadshow (DDFR) at Yale University, we encountered Yale alum and entrepreneur Akintunde Ahmad who shared the experience of his older brother being incarcerated. Seeing his brother sent to prison didn’t stop his family continuing to support and love his brother. Check out what he had to say below:

The post Art & Incarceration: A Panel Discussion appeared first on 1World1Family.me.

Bourne produced an essential chronicle of African-American life, from his early days as a producer, director, and cameraman for the pioneering series Black Journal (alongside colleagues Lou Potter, William Greaves, Kent Garrett, and Madeline Anderson), to the founding of the Black Documentary Collective (BDC) and the journal Chamba Notes. He passed away in 2007, a towering figure in the documentary film world. Metrograph’s series on St. Clair Bourne opens on Friday, February 16 and runs until Monday, February 19.

TWELVE DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA

Thomas Allen Harris / 2005 / 75 mins / Digital

Monday, February 19 7:00 pm

Producer/writer Don Perry will be in attendance Monday night for a special introduction followed by a post screening discussion and explains the tie of themes between the film and the new public television series Family Pictures USA hosted by Thomas Allen Harris.

“I had the idea to invite young people, neighbors of these anti-apartheid heroes, to engage with Lee’s album and re-enact the stories that led to their exile. It was the return of his family album to Bloemfontein that became a transformative experience for everyone – the young people took personal journeys performing the histories of their city, their neighbors and their country and the Disciples were re-united with their own personal story seeing themselves now in a larger public story of the country and the liberation struggle.  This synthesis of archive and remembrance, of myth and origin, changed the national family album of South Africa.”

“I thought, how could I take this experience and use it to create an American family album? How do I help get the images of lost, suppressed and hidden stories? How do we get images from the boxes in their attics or under beds or hard drives or on their phones to build a collective album to help us to understand who WE are as Americans?” – Thomas Allen Harris

Watch an excerpt of the film below!

A lesser-known story from the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa about the generation of young men who left their country to clandestinely build the African National Congress (ANC) and spread its liberation message. One of many great films by Harris on which St. Clair Bourne advised and assisted, who shares the common refrain from filmmakers of “the extent of appreciation for [Saint’s] honesty, activism, support and nurturance of their work and careers.”

The showtimes are now online and advance tickets are available for purchase (here)!

Check out our blog for more info about TWELVE DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA.

Thomas Allen Harris Speaks at Memorial for St. Clair Bourne at the Riverside Church in NYC

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On Sunday January 14, my Executive Producer/writer of Family Pictures USA, Don Perry joined the weekly CBS Radio podcast, “Small Talk with Mark S. Lee” along with other guests: Kurt Rankin, Senior Economist, PNC Bank, Dana White, Founder and Owner, Paralee Boyd, and Karen Hudson Samuels, Executive Director, WGPR TV Historical Society.  The podcast covered various topics concerning the state of Detroit’s economy, including upcoming projects and businesses coming to the Motor City.

Host Mark Lee spoke with Don about Family Pictures USA, for which my trusted production team filmed in Detroit in the summer of 2017 in partnership with over 20 cultural, educational, media and religious institutions around the city, including local television station Detroit Public TV. It was through one of the community photo sharing events we organized.

“If we really want to understand how we got to where we are today, then you can go to a number of places… one of the places that we think has been overlooked is the family photo album.” – Don Perry

Don talks of the unifying effect of bringing a community together through family photographs and flipping the stereotypical perspective of the frontier city that carried so much rich history and culture. There were common themes of entrepreneurship and the automotive industry as well as interesting backstories that involved a famous local recording studio that carried the blueprint for the Motown Sound before Berry Gordy started and a young upcoming Gospel singer, Aretha Franklin.

Mark also recounts his experience sharing his father’s influential story supporting local African American businesses and churches that are still standing in Detroit today! Watch a piece of his interview on Family Pictures USA:

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Thomas Allen Harris looks back at 28 years of HIV/AIDS activism in newly released short film, “About Face: The Evolution of a Black Producer.”

On World AIDS Day 2017, Visual AIDS opened its 28^th iteration of Day With(out) Art, an annual program that seeks to increase awareness of the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis. This year’s program, titled ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS, was curated by Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett and features challenging, innovative work from 8 black artists whose lives are deeply impacted by the ongoing epidemic. ALTERNATE ENDINGS, RADICAL BEGINNINGS is being screened in over 100 venues worldwide.

Still from “About Face: The Evolution of a Black Producer” (2017)

Thomas Allen Harris’ new short film, “About Face: The Evolution of a Black Producer”, opens the program. The piece looks at a series of public television programs Harris produced on HIV/AIDS from 1989-1991, which brought folks who were previously ignored by mainstream media to the core of public discussion, and an essay he’d written around that time, published in Black Popular Culture (edited by Gina Dent).

Still of Vilma Santiago from “About Face: The Evolution of a Black Producer”

Thomas, raised by activists in the Bronx and East Africa, felt an urgency to produce these programs as “friends and colleagues were dying without representation”. Though pushback from the channel’s executives and the constraints of corporate media ultimately led the artist to suspend work in public television, Thomas returns to the work in the context of the contemporary crisis with a continuing sense of urgency: Of those in the US diagnosed with HIV today, 44% are black. The need for representation remains as critical as ever.

At the program’s marquee screening Monday, December 4th at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Thomas Allen Harris participated in a post-screening talkback with artists Cheryl Dunye and Ellen Spiro and program curators Erin Christovale and Vivian Crockett. The talkback focused on the importance of intergenerational dialogue in the context of resistance and the power of the archive.

“I didn’t remember what was in all those archives. [This project] opened up space for me to look in the archive… to actually go into the archive and do a kind of remix of it,” Thomas Allen Harris shared with the Schomburg audience, “It’s like making a psychic, spiritual date with yourself.”

Cheryl Dunye, fellow Academy member and longtime colleague of Thomas, said, “Activism is about collaboration. One person can’t fight a battle alone.”

“It’s about people in physical spaces, and highlighting that,” Thomas added. “Members of my ancestral church are here, Bethel AME. They helped get the word out. 20 years ago, I don’t know if Bethel AME church would be here at this kind of screening. So I just think we’ve changed in many different ways. Things have opened up.”

Thomas returns to the realm of public television with his latest project, Family Pictures USA, which he produces and hosts. The show explores neighborhoods & cities through the lens of the family photo album, enlarging a collective understanding of history and identity. Thomas connects participants to an interactive audience and to each other, using their archives as a starting point. Family Pictures USA is currently running a crowd-funding campaign to bring the pilot series, featuring the city of Detroit, to national broadcast in 2018.

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Join Our Crowdfunding Campaign to Complete the Pilot of Family Pictures USA!

Host Thomas Allen Harris leads Family Pictures USA to explore neighborhoods and cities through people’s family photo albums for a true “people’s history.” Our pilot series kicks off in Detroit where we interviewed hundreds of families and gathered thousands of photographs. We need your help towards completing a 1 hour pilot episode for national broadcast!

Family Pictures USA creates a healing movement, using family photographs to better understand ourselves and others across differences of race, religion, class, gender, orientation, and ability. In an increasingly fractured world, the family photo album may be the key to bringing together our fractured souls and exploring the power of the visual to re-imagine a more compassionate future.

Family Pictures USA will BROADCAST nationally on Public Television in 2018. Each episode will illuminate connections among and between individual family narratives to create an inclusive new Digital American Family Album. Our goal is to transform strangers into family by exposing threads of history that enrich and enlarge our understanding of our nation and its diverse people.

Our VISION is to build community by illuminating our shared values and experiences as human beings.

Our crowdfunding GOAL is set at $35,000 USD. This will allow us to get in the edit room to complete the pilot for national broadcast. We’ve added several different donation categories. Each one is accompanied by a perk you will receive as part of your support!

The post YOU Can Help Bring Family Pictures USA to National Broadcast! appeared first on 1World1Family.me.

Joseph C. Rosenbaum

“Producing a five minute video about my father and how he survived the Holocaust was an experience I will forever cherish. The idea came to me on the first day of our two-day seminar, Re-Imagining the Family Album with Professor Thomas Allen Harris at Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts Program.”

“On that first day, I quickly put together a short video treatment of the subject with very limited resources — just a few photos and a narrative track I wrote as fast as I could. But during the month between classes, I knew I wanted to use a few clips from my dad’s Shoah video testimony he did for the Spielberg project in 1995. Finding the archival material in a high resolution digital file took some research and finally a kind-hearted USC archivist sent it to me, and I felt on top of the world. I watched the nearly two hour testimony one night, for the first time, 22 years after I first received a DVD version. I cried a lot that evening.”

“Were it not for this class and this project, I may have ended up waiting years longer, which would have been a shame. I was very familiar with the stories and detail in my dad’s video testimony. I had edited his written memoirs a few years before my father died in 2009. And I interviewed him on video many years ago. But this was different. Watching this testimony eight years after his death was like sitting with him again, one-on-one, something I wish I could do. I even felt his presence, as I watched the video and later when I began to edit my own video using clips from his testimony, family photos and my own narration. I began to obsess over every photo and my narrative. I wanted to give it my best.”

“Showing the video to the class at Hunter was an experience that felt like one of those life moments you always hold onto. It forever becomes part of your story. I’d never felt such communal, shared warmth, sadness, assurance and hope from a group of virtual strangers over my dad’s story and, in turn, my story. The video was not just about the horrors of his time during the war, but more about the amazing man who emerged from the ashes of post-war Europe to come to America and create what he could of his own American dream. It’s about the wise, moral and loving person who survived Hitler’s hell to come here and feel a love for the importance of making a life and living it right.”

“He really did his best to inculcate those values in me, his own child, and I felt good that in a short video, that showed.”

“While the project may not be perfect, I feel that part of it is sealed. The version I showed to the class and emailed to friends and family received such beautiful feedback and helped me get in touch with my feelings that I want to preserve its original state.”

“I want this to be the version that my kids will watch someday. Yet at the same time, I’ve been inspired to do more with my dad’s story. Many ideas have entered my mind since the class began and now I can begin to bring those ideas to light.”

– Journalist Philip Rosenbaum, 11/16/17

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Katie had printed out a photo that Viktor had saved from burning in a fire in Poland – it was a 1930s carnival-like image – with everyone playing dress up and including Viktor’s Grandfather, his Jewish daughter born out of wedlock and Viktor’s Great Aunt – who he informed us was a Lesbian.

Soon after we met, Viktor left the New Hampshire to begin a residency in Poland. While there he visited his family and made the upsetting discovery that his father, like his great aunt, had recently burned much of the family photos in his procession. It was heart breaking for Viktor especially after participating in DDFR. Viktor and I continue to correspond and recently, he sent images of his work in Poland as well as reflections on the impact of the Syria refugee crisis in Europe as seen through the eyes of the artist.

Below is the narrative between Viktor and DDFR over the last couple of months.

Viktor Witkowski shares his unique photo and story at the DDFR roadshow in Dartmouth College.

Viktor: I’m originally from Poland. This is where this photo was from. In this photo you have my Grandfather. This photo was Probably taken during the end of the 1930s. You have my Grandfather (squatting) and my great aunt dressed in male clothing (on the left). This is my Grandfather’s first child – whose mom was Jewish and she is lost to the family and on the right is another family friend about whom we have no information.
DDFR
Viktor: What’s interesting about this photo is that I first met my great aunt when I was around 12 years old or so. We met her outside of Krakow in Poland. And it’s the first time I meet her and the first question she asks me was ‘Viktor, do you like girls?’ I thought this is a weird question to ask me. I’ve never met you. Never seen you and this is the first question you ask me. Later on my parents told me that she was queer but that no one in the family was talking about that. She had a fiancé before the war but they were never married and she lived most of her life alone. When we visited her, the day before, she started burning photos and throwing them into the fire, into the oven. And we were able to recuse two photo albums and not all had that many photographs in them. But we were able to secure some. And this is one of them. Where they played dress up. We don’t have much information on it. This is all we know

DDFR: Why did you choose to share this photo?

Viktor: The family history is really fragmented mainly because of the war. A lot of the family items got lost, a lot of the family narrative got lost, people didn’t want to talk about the family after the war based on the experiences they had. And so this was a compelling photo to bring where you have a photo but you only know a little about the people you call your family in Particularly her narrative being queer in pre WW2 Poland and living a lie afterwards. She wasn’t very happy and I really liked her but I didn’t really get to know her and she died shortly afterwards.

Watch an exclusive peek of Viktor’s Interview!

Dear friends,
Greetings from Germany!

Niedersachsenstein in Worpswede (WW1 monument made entirely from brick), screenshot from HD video

Since the start of May, I have been living and working at the artist residency “Kuenstlerhaeuser Worpswede” . To some of you Worpswede might ring a bell due to the painter Paula Modersohn-Becker and the artist/architect Bernhard Hoetger who were part of the local artist colony in the early 1900s. My current project addresses the visible and invisible challenges that have emerged across communities in Germany with the arrival of over one million displaced people from conflict zones.

Alan, pencil on cotton paper, 9″ x 12″, 2016

In the last three weeks, I have traveled various cities and towns in northern Germany in the vicinity of Worpswede, including the city of Espelkamp where I grew up after my parents had fled Poland in the early 1980s. This is where I met Alan from Syria, pictured above. He and a group of mainly Syrian refugees have been living at my former elementary school for seven months now. While Germany took in 1,2 million refugees within the span of a year, the US has welcomed only 2,500. As a result, virtually every community in Germany is affected and strained. Because the majority of refugees has arrived within the last 7 to 8 months, it was important for me to visit Germany at this point in time, as global attention toward the ‘refugee crisis’ is already waning while the situation on the ground is far from resolved.

Container Homes for Refugees in Bremen, screenshot from HD video

This incredibly complex, confusing and at times frustrating situation led me to work across a range of media as I found it impossible to respond to these experiences in one medium only. My encounters with people are recorded in video and photo, while I am also working in drawing and painting to explore portraiture and landscape painting. Aside from meeting and talking to various people on both ends of the ‘crisis,’ I have been visiting as many locations: understaffed offices, former parking lots that now house containers for refugees, gym halls, overcrowded living quarters, big city centers, city suburbs, rural towns and parks. I decided that in addition to addressing the human component (and the toll it takes), I must take the meaning of ‘place’ (or Ort in German) into consideration. What does it mean to leave your home and arrive at a place that is neither home nor homeland? Why are most refugee housing sites located on the outskirts of town? What effect do they have on the local community and the refugees?

Donka Dimova* in her conference room/hallway, screenshot from HD video

Any consideration of ‘place’ is not complete without addressing the concept of landscape. Firstly, based on the landscape here in Worpswede and northern Germany in general, I started thinking about the difference between heartlands and borderlands and how refugees are generally restricted to the latter. Secondly, the idea of landscapes as an externalization of inner conditions is not a particularly new one.  Both sides, the volunteers and social workers who try to improve conditions and the refugees who try to build a new life for themselves are continuously slowed in their tracks by political indecision and a bureaucratic apparatus nobody knows how to change. Under these circumstances each individual’s emotional and psychological state is continuously challenged which raises the question how I can use landscape to address these deeper layers.

Worpswede Landscape, oil on paper, 9″ x 12″, 2016

For example, I met a family from Afghanistan (a married couple with three young kids) who were visiting from their overcrowded camp in Hamburg; they are here to spend a few days in this picturesque town of Worpswede, the countryside. In order to leave Hamburg, they had to apply for a permit. Once the permit was granted, they received their travel documents  which are only valid within Germany. Since their arrival, they have been enjoying their time away from the refugee camp, where they do not have any privacy and where they are not even allowed to cook for themselves. On vacation here, their kids have even started to learn how to ride a bike.

Screenshot from HD video

The post My Lesbian Great Aunt appeared first on 1World1Family.me.

This father’s day actually marks the ten anniversary of the film I made as a testament to my step father, B. Pule Leinaeng (Lee), a South African freedom fighter who dedicated his life to using media (radio, TV, journalism, photography & film) to free South Africa from apartheid.

(l to r) Thomas Allen Harris, mother Rudean Leinaeng, stepfather Benjamin Pule “Lee” Leinaeng, Joseph Fhuping Coapage, c. 1977

I began this film in 2000 at Lee’s funeral in Bloemfontein South Africa and it has shown all over the world and in many ways, help formulate the concept of Digital Diaspora Family Reunion. In the Director’s notes below you read below how the film came to fruition. In this blog post I want to celebrate fathers. I also want to celebrate my stepfather’s sister, Aunt Kedibone Kgukutli, who just last week transitioned. She was last of the generations of Lee’s siblings and was a wonderful and deeply gracious woman who anchored the family and Lee during his 30+ years in exile.  Because of Apartheid, I initially only knew Aunt Kedibone through photographs the family sent us of her, my cousins and other relatives (as well as the images that Lee had managed to take with him when he left South Africa for exile in his early 20s).

I first met Aunt Kedibone when I was in my early 20s during her first visit to our home the Bronx in the 1980s and she embraced me as her nephew. We got to know one another during the visits to the US and later even better when I spent time in Bloemfontein from 2003 to2005 t o produce Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela and it’s the transmedia community outreach project.

Production still: Lee saying goodbye to family

Aunt Kedibone, a former school teacher, played a central role, guiding the production, being interviewed several times, hosting us at her home with her delicious cooking, her wonderful stories, and her deep kindness and compassion.

Production still. Character of Setai seeking to get paid for his work for a farmer

DDFR

DDFR

Aunt Kedibone was not alone. Many of Lee’s colleagues who went into exile with him also opened their homes, hearts and memories with me so that I could more fully understand both the man who raised me and the deep conviction it took to keep hope and a dream alive during a soul crushing exile.

Newspaper article on the passing of Dr. Bethel Setai

In the intervening 10-years since we completed the film, five of our central subjects of the film have passed away including most recently Dr. Bethel Setai, who, like Lee, spent many of his years in the USA. I am grateful that their stories of inspiration and struggle are still with us through their testimonials in Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (a son’s tribute to unsung heroes.)

So on this father’s day, I salute my step dad, my Aunt Kedibone and all the others who work.

TWELVE DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA
A Son’s Tribute to Unsung Heroes
SYNOPSIS

Confronted by the death of his stepfather, Director Thomas Allen Harris embarks on a journey of reconciliation with the man who raised him as a son but whom he could never call “father.”  B. Pule Leinaeng (“Lee”) was an ANC foot soldier, who sacrificed his life for the freedom of his country.  As part of the first wave of South African exiles, Lee and his eleven comrades left their home in Bloemfontein in 1960 to broadcast to the world the brutality of the apartheid system and to raise support for the African National Congress (“ANC”) and its leaders, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. Drawing upon the memories of the surviving disciples and their families, young South African actors portray the harrowing events of the exodus and exile and in so doing, forge their own reconciliation between the generations.

WORLD PREMIERE
Toronto International Film Festival 2005

AFRICAN PREMIERE
Mangaung African Festival
Cape Town World Cinema Festival

AWARDS
Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles (Best Documentary Award) – February 2006
Bermuda International Film Festival (Honorable Mention – Audience Award)
Santa Cruz Film Festival (Best Documentary Award)
Imagenation’s Revolution Award
Independent Spirit Award Nomination, Truer Than Fiction

BROADCAST
POV Documentary, Global Voices, Swedish Television

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It was a great experience working with Mahen Bonetti and her team to create a moving and historic Digital Diaspora Town Hall meeting that celebrated past supporters of the 23rd New York African Film Festival and brought in new audiences for 2016! Mahen and her team helped to select the special guests whose family albums and testimonials would frame the entire show with audience participation in between each of the curated guests. As we were to discover again, the magic of the collaboration with partners and the spontaneity of the unscripted audience participation produced a very special magic!

Filmmaker Iquo Essien shows her family photos including her mother from Nigeria

As the testimonials of the various panelists showed, visibility through self- representation is an important instrument in promoting the full enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights by people of African descent in combating racism and racial discrimination. The panelists discussed how individuals, communities and nations have used self-representation as a tool for social change and as a way of achieving political and cultural representation within societies.

Each DDFR Roadshow is always unique and surprising in its outcome and discoveries and this one was no different in that regard. No one could have predicted that two family members – cousins – would meet here for the every first time through this public sharing of their family photos.

(R to L) Photographer Berette Macaulay, Photographer Adama Delphine Fawundu

If that was not amazing enough, both cousins – Delphine Fawundu (from Brooklyn and Sierre Leone)  – and Berette Macaulay (from Jamaica, Germany and Sierra Leone) are both photographers and artists! It was such an emotional and moving moment watching these two women/artists/cousins realize their connection, embrace one another and recount names of family members, places, dates amid laughter and tears. It was a true family reunion. And it was manifested through the sharing of their family photos & narratives! The program also featured several other great guests – spoken word artists, filmmakers, writers, dancers, and photographers hailing from such disparate places as Lagos, Nigeria to Sao Paulo, Brazil to Flynn, Michigan. Their testimonials all set to music by the kora player – who hails from a family of Griots.

Historian Leonard Davis presents his vintage family photos

Just as we were about to bring the event to a close, one participant the collector Leonard Davis nearly rushed on to the stage with a huge portfolio stuffed with images which he insisted we take a look at. The images included his great-great grandfather, a self made man in the South who owned a negro league ball team and his great-great-great grandmother who never left the plantation on which she and her ancestors were born, lived and worked. Hearing the names and stories of the audiences ancestors, relatives and children and seeing their photos, after the public performances and storytelling, the DDFR participants were photographed holding their family photos in a studio that was created in homage to Malick Sidibe.

Following the Digital Diaspora roadshow was a lovely panel moderated by Rev. Malika Lee Whitney. Afterwards, we had a catered reception following the event. Meanwhile Mahen and the DDFR team began plotting for the next Digital Diaspora event and the evolution of this abundant partnership!

“I am proud and honoured that we opened the 23^rd New York African Film Festival, with the town hall event curated by the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow. This project has reignited our deferred dream for a renewed African Unity. In the late 60s’ my family experienced one of the first post-independence coup d’etat’s that took place on our continent. In the chaos of trying to find a safe shelter, one of the first things my mother tried to secure and take along with us, were the family photos. When we arrived in the U.S., the atmosphere in our household was always gloomy and the expectation was that we were only here to stay temporarily. However, whenever our diasporan relatives came to visit, the photo albums came out and this created laughter, tears and hope!” – Mahen Bonetti

“Dancer Nairobi Hamilton(My mother) Thank you so much for having me and my mom at the event. What a great event and experience ! It was so interesting to share stories and pictures and I felt this really brought people together. (especially in a time when people need to be brought together and made aware of the stories we all share with family and and friends)

DDFR

The event was both an emotional and enlightening experience for me and for my mother. The medium of images is such a powerful tool of communication and i look forward to hearing more about future events and projects that you may be working on. sincerely Quenia Ribeiro” – Quenia Ribeiro

DDFR

DDFR

DDFR

“So much of who we are is where we come from. The tapestry of stories that weave through our familial history play a deep role in our understanding of self. In our fast paced society and lives, many at times we don’t take the time to reflect on how pictures both past and present, play an intricate role in understanding our familial history. And then a special opportunity comes along in the form of the African Film Festival’s Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Townhall that inspires a trans-formative form of reflection.   From panelists like myself to audience members, we all walked into the DDFR Townhall as strangers but left with a unifying bond that felt so familial. Such a special transference of energy can’t be forced. It just happens. It did happen and it was nothing short of sublime. I can’t encourage everyone enough to connect into the experiences New York African Film Festival continues to provide us with its curated events. I have no doubt the upcoming festival will once again triumph beyond my already high expectations.” – Ayoinmotion

“My friend Thomas Allen Harris invited me to attend the Digital Diaspora Road show at Lincoln Center on Sunday. he said bring along some of your family pictures to share. So, I looked all my family photos which I have framed and hanging the Living room and couldn’t decide which relatives to bring and who to leave behind. So, I brought them all. Although I accepted Thomas’s invitation to attend this event, I didn’t really know what to expect. Perhaps an elaborate Black American “Show & Tell”. However, I witnessed an amazing and inspiring concept that has changed my life forever. Thomas has once again utilized his gift of inspiring and uniting the world, by providing this unique opportunity for people of color to display photos of their “ancestors”, call their names and acknowledge their victories and honor their legacies. We are all aware that throughout the 400 + years of slavery our families were divided and disbursed. However, as we continue to share the narratives of our ancestors and keep their memories alive, these stories will overlap with other narratives and ultimately unite us with long lost family members! Thomas is on a mission that comes from a higher power, to help us reconnect. Thanks, Thomas” – Leonard Davis

The post Two Cousins Meet for the First Time at Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Kick off for the New York African Film Festival! appeared first on 1World1Family.me.

Daesha Devón Harris, Artist from Saratoga Springs

Our visit to Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York was a wonderful experience, full of poignant stories and cherished family photos. Not only were we able to explore new narratives, we also experienced how students and faculty alike are able to incorporate their celebration of their family histories into their definitions of everyday life. The John B. Moore Documentary Studies Collaborative (MDOCs) at Skidmore hosted the Digital Diaspora Family Roadshow (DDFR) production team and began the engagement with a Through A Lens Darkly screening and post-film discussion with director Thomas Allen Harris.

We spent the following day in Albany, where we were able to work with Youth FX, an organization that promotes youth involvement with film and photography in the South Albany area. Afterwards, we continued our photo sharing sessions on the Skidmore Campus, meeting various students and locals who wanted to share their stories and photos. Below are some photos and accompanying videos of the family histories that we encountered at Skidmore College.

Mary Ann Fitzgerald, Historian based in Saratoga Springs

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Dorothea Truffleman shares her photos through which she speaks of the complex emotions and thoughts behind a simple vacation photo.

Dorothea Truffleman

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Father and daughter duo, Bhawin and Maya Suchak join DDFR at the Grand Street Community Arts Center in Albany sharing their family photos, recounting some interesting stories including the story of Maya’s birth.

Bhawin and Maya Suchak

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Local mixed media artist and photographer, Daesha Devón Harris shares her photos and speaks of a family tradition handed down through generations.

Images from Daesha Devón Harris’ family photo albums.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B10twT7EBtI

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Skidmore student Brittany Kent shares photos of her family, as well as sharing her latest discovery of her diverse family lineage.

Brittany Kent

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Later that evening, we hosted a Digital Diaspora Grand Finale where we were able to highlight some of the stories that we encountered, and welcome other members of the community to share their own.

Skidmore College students discussing DDFR

Daesha Devon Harris sharing at our DDFR Roadshow Finale

From Left to Right: Rudean Leinaeng, Greg Warren Jr., Don Perry, Jordana Dym, Yvonne Welbon, Thomas Allen Harris

Special Thanks To:

DDFR

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