Section D – The Sun Rises In The East – 6:05-7:40 pm EST

Mary

Writer: Michelle Renee Jackson Director: Michelle Renee Jackson

Producer: Mark Herzog,  Canyon Prince

15 min., Narrative

While speaking the actual words transcribed from Mary Armstrong’s 1930s U.S. Federal Writer’s Project interview about her experience with slavery as an African-American enslaved woman who loved to dance, a modern-day and taciturn Custodian trails a Ballet Mistress and her company dancers’ rehearsals until his true identity is revealed.

The Sun Rises in The East

Director: Tayo Giwa Writers: Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa

Producers: Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa

Documentary, 58 min.

The Sun Rises in The East 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, publisher, record label, restaurant, clothing shop and bookstore. The organization hosted world-famous jazz musicians and poets at its highly sought-after performance venue, and it served as an epicenter for political contemporaries such as the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and the Congress of Afrikan People, as well as comrades across Africa and the Caribbean.