Black on Screen: Films by William Greaves

Join us for Black on Screen: Films by William Greaves a celebration of the life and legacy of the pioneering late American filmmaker, William Greaves. Throughout his influential career, the Harlem-born documentary filmmaker was instrumental in documenting Black life on screen. In the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Greaves won an Emmy for his work as executive producer of Black Journal a public program that broadcasted news authored by and about Black-American life which aired on the National Education Television  — a predecessor of PBS — through 1977. Greaves went on to produce, direct, and write a number of documentaries and experimental films through the 2000s, documenting themes across Black-American and diasporic revolutionary struggles and rendering portraits of influential Black leaders, from Ida B. Wells to Ralph Bunche. 

This program will feature two works by Greaves, beginning with the First World Festival of Negro Arts — a film that captures the 1966 pan-African festival in Dakar, Senegal. The festival was a month-long celebration of Pan-African culture that featured live music, dance, theatre and more from over 2500 artists with representation from 30 independent African countries. This film will be followed by a screening of Greaves’s Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, an avant-garde film set in Central Park that Greaves shot through cinema-verite in 1966. 

Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

Black on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture, captures 100 years of local and transnational Black movement work and artistic evolution on film. Sourced from The Schomburg’s collection and others, it takes a kaleidoscopic look at Black life and expression across diasporas, rendering a range of storytelling traditions that incite and inspire Black world-building. The Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division (MIRS, pronounced “meers”) at the Schomburg Center collects and preserves audio and moving image (AMI) materials related to the experiences of people of African descent. The division has amassed nearly 400 collections, approximately 5,000 square feet, in a variety of formats, which captures the gestures and sounds of major historical, artistic and cultural moments and influencers. While the strength is the Black American holdings there is considerable Caribbean and African representation in the collection.

This year, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture continues celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding! Join us all year long for a wide array of special events, exhibitions, and more as we celebrate this milestone and continue the legacy of Arturo Schomburg.

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FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early. We generally overbook to ensure a full house.

GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.

ACCESSIBLILITY Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that personal and professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

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Host or Publisher Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture