Black Nations/Queer Nations? (film still), 1995. Courtesy Shari Frilot and Third While Newsreel
Black Nations/Queer Nations?: Screening and Community Discussion
GETTY CENTER
Tuesday, June 18, 2024, from 3 pm - 6 pm
Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Advance ticket required
Shari Frilot's experimental documentary Black Nations/Queer Nations? chronicles the groundbreaking 1995 conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic scholars, activists, artists, and cultural workers including Essex Hemphill, Kobena Mercer, Barbara Smith, Urvashi Vaid, Isaac Julien, and M. Jacqui Alexander to interrogate the economic, political, and social situations of diasporic LGBTQIA+ peoples. This special screening of the film, followed by a discussion featuring the film's director Shari Frilot and Columbia University’s Dr. Jafari Sinclaire Allen, will allow us to once again explore the identities, culture, and politics of Black queer peoples both in history and the now.
This program is sponsored by the Getty Research Institute's African American Art History Initiative (AAAHI) and Columbia University's Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS) and Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS).
Shari Frilot is an artist, filmmaker, and chief curator of the New Frontier program at the Sundance Film Festival. She is the director of the 1995 documentary Black Nations/Queer Nations?
Jafari Sinclaire Allen is professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies (AAADS) at Columbia University, where he is the director of the Institute for Research in African American Studies (IRAAS) and editor-in-chief of Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Society, and Culture.
The conversation will be available on the Getty Research Institute YouTube channel following the event.
Visit the Getty Research Institute's Exhibitions and Events page for more free programs.