Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Name: Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Start: 2025-02-27T19:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-02-27T21:30:00-05:00
Location: The Dryden Theatre

Schedule

Thu Feb 27 2025 at 07:30 pm to 09:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

The Dryden Theatre | Rochester, NY

Free screening. Complimentary admission sponsored by Nocon & Associates.
In the summer of 1969 - the year man went to the moon and rock fans were descending on Woodstock - nightclub singer Tony Lawrence, with backing from the city, put on the third and final Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of six concerts from June to August that would bring the borough together and promote Black pride. This astounding set of concerts featured an array of artists, including Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension, Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Ray Barretto, Nina Simone, and B.B King. Lawrence invited filmmaker Hal Tulchin to record the concerts on five different video cameras and although two television specials were created from the footage, most of it was considered lost until Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson found out about it. He researched the the festival and footage, creating a feature documentary to bring the festival out into the light, bringing a musician’s tempo to not only the music but the visuals as well. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2022.
Introduction by Carter Soles, Associate Professor at SUNY Brockport.