Brooklyn to Browne's Ferry: Screening, Talkback, & Performance

Brooklyn to Browne's Ferry: Preserving Stories, Connecting Spaces, and Honoring Communities in a New South City

Charlotte’s historically Black neighborhood of Brooklyn was once home to 12 churches, and all but one of which were forced to move away when the uptown neighborhood was razed during “urban renewal.” Only Grace A.M.E. Zion Church remained, and in 1980, their 1902 Gothic Revival home was named a historic landmark. Now used as a performance space, it is one of just four buildings that survived the neighborhood’s destruction.

In the 1990s, the Grace congregation purchased land in the Browne’s Ferry neighborhood of northeast Charlotte and sold their historic building. On June 17, 2006, some members of the congregation walked 11.5 miles north to establish their new church – reminiscent of the historic Great Migration that marked the start of new life for many Black people in the mid 20th century. Formerly rural farmland, the Browne’s Ferry neighborhood was developed in the 1990s as a racially diverse middle-class neighborhood that attracted Black and White Charlotteans as well as a wide range of international residents who have brought cultures of the Global South to the area.

The community-based film and performance project Brooklyn to Browne’s Ferry became a creative platform for the story of Grace A.M.E. Zion Church, its migration, and its effort to redefine itself in a new place and time. In partnership with UNC Charlotte, this program is a multi-art blend of sights, sounds, and movement meant to preserve an element of Charlotte's Black history through video, live music, and dance.

The Brooklyn to Browne’s Ferry documentary will be screened, and interspersed with performances and panel discussions featuring local hip-hop artist YUNG Citizen, dancer & choreographer Ashley L. Tate, and filmmaker Marlon Morrison, as well as community and church members who can expound on this story’s implications.

Host or Publisher Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture