Sankofa Film Collective
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Sankofa Film Collective
(pronounced ''SAHN''-koh-fah) is a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “to retrieve" (literally "go back and get"; - to return; - to go; - to fetch, to seek and take) and also refers to the Bono Adinkra symbol represented either with a stylized heart shape or by a bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward carrying a precious egg in its mouth. Sankofa is often associated with the proverb, “''Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi''," which translates as: "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten." The sankofa bird appears frequently in traditional Akan art, and has also been adopted as an important symbol in an African-American and African Diaspora context to represent the need to reflect on the past to build a successful future. It is one of the most widely dispersed adinkra symbols, appearing in modern jewelry, tattoos, and clothing. Akan symbolism The Akan people of Ghana use an adinkra symbol to represent the same concep ...
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Blue Light 'til Dawn
''Blue Light 'til Dawn'' is a studio album by American jazz singer Cassandra Wilson. Her first album on the Blue Note label, it was released in 1993. It contains Wilson's interpretations of songs by various blues and rock artists, as well as three original compositions. The album marked a shift in Wilson's recording style, mostly dropping the electric instruments and funk-influenced work of her earlier albums, in favor of acoustic arrangements influenced by folk and country music. A critical and commercial breakthrough, the album was re-released in 2014 with three bonus tracks recorded live somewhere in Europe during the ''Blue Light 'til Dawn Tour''. The eponymous single was nominated for the Grammy Award as Best Jazz Vocal Performance. Background As of March 1996, the album sold over 250,000 copies. While recording the album, Wilson's father, jazz bassist Herman Fowlkes, Jr., died. In an interview for ''New York Magazine'', Wilson explained that the album's name refers to a ce ...
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Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson (born December 4, 1955) is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. She is one of the most successful female jazz singers and has been described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack ho hasexpanded the playing field" by incorporating blues, country, and folk music into her work. She has won numerous awards, including two Grammys, and was named "America's Best Singer" by ''Time'' magazine in 2001. Early life and career Cassandra Wilson is the third and youngest child of Herman Fowlkes, Jr., a guitarist, bassist, and music teacher; and Mary McDaniel, an elementary school teacher who earned her PhD in education. Her ancestry includes Fon, Yoruba, Irish and Welsh. Between her mother's love for Motown and her father's dedication to jazz, Wilson's parents sparked her early interest in music. Leland, John. GOING HOME WITH: Cassandra Wilson; Jazz Diva Follows Sound of Her Roots'' ''Th ...
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Dom Flemons
Dominique Flemons (born August 30, 1982) is an American old-time music, Piedmont blues, and neotraditional country multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. He is a proficient player of the banjo, fife, guitar, harmonica, percussion, quills, and rhythm bones. He is known as "The American Songster" as his repertoire of music spans nearly a century of American folklore, ballads, and tunes. He has performed with Mike Seeger, Joe Thompson, Martin Simpson, Boo Hanks, Taj Mahal, Old Crow Medicine Show, Guy Davis, and The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. A member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops from their inception in 2005 until 2013, Flemons has released five albums in his own name, although two of those were collaborations with other musicians. Flemons appreciates the tradition inherent in his solo work and once stated, "I want to experiment rather than to merely replicate. It can never be as good as the original, so I make the music fit my own style. I look at the old t ...
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Rhiannon Giddens
Rhiannon Giddens (born February 21, 1977) is an American musician known for her eclectic folk music. She is a founding member of the country, blues, and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she was the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player. Giddens is from Greensboro, North Carolina. In addition to her work with the Grammy-winning Chocolate Drops, Giddens has released five solo albums: '' Tomorrow Is My Turn'' (2015) and '' Freedom Highway'' (2017); 2021's '' There Is No Other'' and '' They're Calling Me Home'' (both collaborations with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi); and '' You're the One'' (2023). She appears in the Smithsonian Folkways collection documenting Mike Seeger's final trip through Appalachia in 2009, ''Just Around The Bend: Survival and Revival in Southern Banjo Styles – Mike Seeger's Last Documentary'' (2019). In 2014, she participated in the T Bone Burnett-produced project titled The New Basement Tapes along wit ...
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Sankofa Strings
(pronounced ''SAHN''-koh-fah) is a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “to retrieve" (literally "go back and get"; - to return; - to go; - to fetch, to seek and take) and also refers to the Bono Adinkra symbol represented either with a stylized heart shape or by a bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward carrying a precious egg in its mouth. Sankofa is often associated with the proverb, “''Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi''," which translates as: "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten." The sankofa bird appears frequently in traditional Akan art, and has also been adopted as an important symbol in an African-American and African Diaspora context to represent the need to reflect on the past to build a successful future. It is one of the most widely dispersed adinkra symbols, appearing in modern jewelry, tattoos, and clothing. Akan symbolism The Akan people of Ghana use an adinkra symbol to represent the same conce ...
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Margaret Busby
Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book publisher in the UKJazzmine Breary"Let's not forget", in ''Writing the Future: Black and Asian Writers and Publishers in the UK Market Place'', Spread the Word, April 2013, p. 30. when she and Clive Allison (1944–2011) co-foundedMargaret Busby"Clive Allison obituary", ''The Guardian'', 3 August 2011. the London-based publishing house Allison and Busby (A & B) in the 1960s. She edited the anthology ''Daughters of Africa'' (1992), and its 2019 follow-up '' New Daughters of Africa''. She is a recipient of the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature.Natasha Onwuemezi"Busby to compile anthology of African women writers", ''The Bookseller'', 15 December 2017. In 2020, she was voted one of the " 100 Great Black Britons".
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500 Years Later
''500 Years Later'' ( ') is a 2005 independent documentary film directed by Owen 'Alik Shahadah and written by M. K. Asante, Jr. It has won five international film festival awards in the category of Best Documentary, including the UNESCO "Breaking the Chains" award. It has won other awards including Best Documentary at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles, Best Documentary at the Bridgetown Film Festival in Barbados, Best Film at the International Black Cinema Film Festival in Berlin, and Best International Documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival in New York. ''500 Years Later'' has received praise and controversy, both for its creative documentary genre, and its social-political impact with relation to race study. The film premiered on February 28, 2005, at the Pan-African Awards (PAFF) and won Best Documentary there. It made its American television premiere on August 23, 2008, on TV One (Radio One), and Ethiopian Television premiere on October 27, 2007 ...
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Haile Gerima
Haile Gerima (born March 4, 1946) is an Ethiopian filmmaker who lives and works in the United States. He is a leading member of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. Since 1975, Haile has been a film professor at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He is best known for ''Sankofa (1993 film), Sankofa'' (1993), which won two awards. Early life Gerima was born and raised in Gondar, Ethiopia. Haile is ethnic Amhara People, Amhara. His father was a dramatist and playwright, who traveled across the Ethiopian countryside staging local plays. He was an important early influence. He has discussed the unconscious effect representations of colonialism in film had on him as a child: ...as kids, we tried to act out the things we had seen in the movies. We used to play cowboys and Indians in the mountains around Gondar...We acted out the roles of these heroes, identifying with the cowboys conquering the Indians. We didn't identify with ...
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Sankofa (1993 Film)
''Sankofa'' (Amharic: ሳንኮፋ) is a 1993 Ethiopian-produced Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Haile Gerima that is centered on the Atlantic slave trade. The storyline features Oyafunmike Ogunlano, Kofi Ghanaba, Mutabaruka, Alexandra Duah, and Afemo Omilami. The word Sankofa is derived from the Akan language of Ghana and means to "go back, look for, and gain wisdom, power and hope," according to Dr. Anna Julia Cooper. The word 'Sankofa' stresses the importance of one not drifting too far away from one's past in order to progress in the future. In the film, Sankofa is depicted by a bird and the chants and drumming of a Divine Drummer. Gerima's film shows the importance of people of African descent not drifting far away from their African roots. Gerima uses the journey of the character Mona to show how the African perception of identity included recognizing one's roots and "returning to one’s source" (Gerima). Plot The film opens with an elderly ...
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Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River and one of the oldest Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, Jesuit universities in the United States. The university is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In the 2023–2024 academic year, SLU had an enrollment of 15,204 students. The student body included 8,502 undergraduate students and 6,702 graduate students that represent all 50 states and 96 countries. The university is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Spending and Doctorate Production". For more than 50 years, the university has maintained the Saint Louis University Madrid Campus in Spain. The Madrid campus wa ...
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