Activists on Screen: The Sun Rises in The East

When: Thursday, November 16, 2023, 6:30pm

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The title "The Sun Rises in the East" and images of Black students and teachers from the 70s on a black background. — Image courtesy of filmmakers.

Join us to kick off our new Activists on Screen film series with a screening of Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa's award-winning 2022 documentary, The Sun Rises in The East (2022, 58 min). The film chronicles the birth, rise and legacy of The East, a pan-African cultural organization founded in 1969 by teens and young adults in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Led by educator and activist Jitu Weusi, The East embodied Black self-determination, building more than a dozen institutions, including its own African-centered school, food co-op, newsmagazine, publishing company, record label, restaurant, clothing shop and bookstore.

The program begins with Community Control (2023, 12 min) by Tanika I. Williams and Shahkeem Williams, a video artwork celebrating the enduring activism of native Brooklynites using archival footage from 1970s Black neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville through the eyes of children and community members.

A conversation with the filmmakers (Tayo Giwa, Cynthia Gordy Giwa, Tanika I. Williams, and Shahkeem Williams) led by Kamau Ware of the Black Gotham Experience follows the screenings.

Complimentary wine, beer, and sambusas from Ras Plant Based are included in your ticket!

Activists on Screen is a new documentary film series examining NYC’s longstanding engagement with social activism, inspired by the Museum's centennial and our ongoing exhibition Activist New York. The series is programmed by Sarah Seidman, MCNY's Puffin Foundation Curator of Social Activism, and film curator Melissa Lyde, founder and creator of Alfreda's Cinema.

Event timeline:
6:00pm - Doors open to Ronay Menschel Hall (Ground Floor).
6:30pm - Welcome and brief introduction by series co-programmers Sarah Seidman and Melissa Lyde.
6:45pm - Community Control screening.
7:00pm - The Sun Rises in The East screening.
8:00pm - Conversation with filmmakers Tayo Giwa, Cynthia Gordy Giwa, Tanika I. Williams, and Shahkeem Williams, moderated by Kamau Ware.
8:45pm - Program ends.
9:00pm - Museum closes.

About the Speakers:

Cynthia Gordy-Giwa and Tayo Giwa, a Black Couple, sit on the steps of a brownstone wearing leather jackets and staring into the camera.

Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa are a husband-and-wife filmmaking team and the creators of Black-Owned Brooklyn, a publication and Instagram account documenting local Black business, history and culture. In this work they seek to preserve and celebrate stories that are often erased in gentrified Brooklyn. Their debut film, the 2020 documentary short Soul Summit: Doin’ It in the Park, examined Soul Summit, a beloved open-air house music party based in Fort Greene Park. The Sun Rises in the East, their first feature, is the result of simply being unable to shake the story of The East since first learning about it. Drawing inspiration from the organization’s self-sufficient spirit, the Giwas directed, produced and wrote the film themselves without formal industry training. Given the film’s focus on Black self-determination and Brooklyn, the duo intentionally sought to work with Black collaborators connected to the borough, including their cinematographer, editor, camera operator, audio mixer and colorist, poster and web designer.

Kamau Ware is a multidimensional creative blending complementary yet disparate disciplines as an Artist / Historian. Ware retells and expands history with scholarship and visual storytelling to fuse creativity and learning into one experience. He is best known for his flagship storytelling project, Black Gotham Experience (BGX), which is an immersive multimedia project founded in 2010 that celebrates the impact of the African Diaspora on New York City through a series of historic walks, talks, photography-based graphic novels, and events.

Tanika, a Black woman wearing a black shirt, sits holding a circular pleated fan. She looks to the left. Shakeem, a Black man wearing a white shirt and olive green hat stands with his hands on her shoulders, looking to the left. Behind them is a dark blue background.

Shahkeem E. Williams is a Brooklyn-based experimental documentary filmmaker whose work combines archival interviews, academic research, autobiographical expression, afro-surrealism and performance– poetically exploring themes of trauma and healing, labor, and abolitionist activism across generations.

Tanika I. Williams (b. St. Andrew, Jamaica; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an award-winning filmmaker and performance artist. She investigates women's use of movement, mothering, and medicine to produce and pass on ancestral wisdom of ecology, spirituality, and liberation. Williams holds a BA from Eugene Lang College, New School, and an MDiv from Union Theological Seminary. Her films have been screened in national and international festivals and broadcast on American television. Williams has been awarded fellowships and residencies at NYU Tisch School, New York Foundation for the Arts, Hi-ARTS, Cow House Studios, MORE Art, and BRIC. Her additional awards and appearances include En Foco Media Arts Fund, 99.5 WBAI, Art in Odd Places, Creative Time, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Civic Art Lab, GreenspaceNYC, Let Us Eat Local, Just Food, and Performa.