THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
February 24, 2022 - March 2, 2022 • 15
Arts & Entertainment Film/TV pg 15-16 | Theater pg 17 | Travel pg 19 | Jazz pg 21
Pg. 18 Your Stars
Oscar-shortlisted filmmaker develops Sun Ra doc By JORDANNAH ELIZABETH Special to the AmNews Documentary filmmaker, Stanley Nelson, whose current documentary “Attica” is shortlisted for an Academy Award has announced that his production company Firelight Films is developing a new documentary about the other-worldly experimental jazz musician Sun Ra. The film, entitled “Sun Ra and the Rise of Afrofuturism,” will feature the only surviving member of the original Sun Ra Arkestra, 98-year-old Marshall Allen who is set to perform at Carnegie Hall’s Afrofuturism city-wide event series in New York City with the current Arkestra lineup. Sun Ra is hailed to be one of the early creators within the genre of Afrofuturism. “Anchored by archival footage of Ra and his performances as well as interviews with musicians who performed with him over the years, ‘Sun Ra and the Rise of Afrofuturism’ will live up to the second half of its title by exploring how the theory and practice of Afrofuturism
evolved, diversified and developed from Ra’s foundational concepts through interviews with contemporary writers, visual artists, musicians and curators,” Reelscreen reports. This documentary is very timely as the world begins to recognize the importance and poignancy of Black historical figures who have been largely left out of the Western music and arts canon. This is largely due to the post-George Floyd international awakening toward racial justice and the newfound desire to reexamine and update historical documentation that includes Black innovators and visionaries. “Without Sun Ra, it is hard to understand George Clinton, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monáe, Ras G, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, Moor Mother, Black Panther, Lovecraft Country, [or] Afrofuturism itself,” expressed Nelson. “Ra was part mystic, genius, showman and possibly alien. He was one of the most prolific, creative and visionary musicians the world has ever known.”
The Criterion Channel has released a series, “Black History Rising: Documentaries by Stanley Nelson,” featuring five of his films, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” “A Place of Our Own,” “Freedom Summer,” “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and “Tell Them We Are Rising.” His most recent documentary “Attica” explores the five-day rebellion at upstate New York’s Attica Correctional Facility in 1971, which can be streamed for free on Showtime’s YouTube channel until the end of Black History Month. American jazz musician Sun Ra in a publicity photo promoting the 1973 reissue of his album “The Magic City” through Impulse! Records and ABC/Dunhill Records (Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia. org/wiki/File:Sun_Ra_(1973_publicity_ photo_-_Impulse_ABC_Dunhill).jpg)
Ebony ’s iconic Test Kitchen on view in Harlem Ebony Magazine’s Test Kitchen
(Clay Williams photo)
The iconic Ebony Magazine Test Kitchen—saved from wreckage thanks to preservationists Landmarks Illinois—is now accessible to the public as part of a first-of-itskind exhibit. Presented in partnership with the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table”—displayed within the newly-constructed home of partner The Africa Center at Aliko Dangote Hall (1280 5th Avenue, New York)— reveals the stories of innovators, cooks, mixologists, and entrepreneurs as it emphasizes that African American food is American food. Curated by Dr. Jessica B. Harris, widely considered the world’s preeminent expert on the foods of the African diaspora, this exhibition celebrates the countless contributions of Black chefs, farmers, and food and drink producers who have laid the foundation for American food culture—recognition that is long overdue. Understanding the rich and expansive stories
underlying any good meal, African/American seeks, in its immersiveness and historic scope, to offer a portrait of the immense breadth of African American traditions and innovations in cooking. The centerpiece of the exhibition, the Legacy Quilt—illustrated by Adrian Franks, sewn by the quilting collective Harlem Needle Arts using period-appropriate fabrics, and featuring blurbs on each block
by writer Osayi Endolyn— depicts, through traditions stitched together and interconnected across the Diaspora, space, and time, a selection of hundreds among countless stories that deserve recognition. This awe-inspiring artifact stands 14 feet tall and nearly 28 feet wide. The Legacy Quilt also includes an interactive, virtual experience whereby people can submit their own stories of African American culinary
heroes to add—emphasizing that these culinary histories are not finite, that the work of documenting and celebrating them is ongoing. Visitors are then carried through four centuries of influence on agriculture, culinary arts, brewing and distilling, and commerce. The movement of people, whether enslaved Africans across the Atlantic or over 6 million Black Americans from the
South to the North during the Great Migration, and in turn, their food traditions across place and time, is a central theme of the exhibition. While the Legacy Quilt offers a breathtaking panorama, the Ebony Magazine Test Kitchen offers immersion into a specific institution (and its vivid, Afro-Modernist aesthetic representation of its historic moment) that served as a culinary touchstone for more than two generations of African Americans. Described by The Chicago Tribune as “the most distinctive test kitchen ever created,” it was the site where recipes from Ebony food editors—from oyster gumbo to sweet potato pudding— came together for the iconic “A Date With A Dish” column. The multisensory experience features a soul-stirring soundtrack curated by musician, farmer, and chef Kelis, and video interviews with former Ebony food editors. For more information and for tickets, visit www.theafricacenter.org.
