NATIONAL DAY OF
STORYTELLING
PROGRAM
NATIONAL DAY OF
STORYTELLING
PROGRAM
The Screenings | 10.10.20
9:00am PT - 10:00am PT
Registration + Welcome
Enjoy music and pre-show slide show. Register here for invitations to special post-show conversations and workshops
10:00am PT - 11:00am PT
Calling in the Spirits
These stories call us to come together, to realize artists as culture bearers and spirit keepers, to challenge the darkness, to center the body in celebration, to imagine a world we cannot see.
Healing Journey by Amikaeyla Gaston
In a recent talk for cancer survivors, international arts leader and award-winning musician Amikaeyla Gaston calls in the ancestors, elephants, and possums, speaks directly to artists and channels the creative healing spirit during this time of crisis.
Proximity by Darius Simpson
Poet Darius Simpson collaborated with video producer/director Gabriel Diamond and choreographer Erika Chong Shuch for this performance of his poem Proximity at the 2018 Skoll World Forum. He opened for EJI Executive Director Bryan Stevenson’s talk on how we can change the world by embracing the inconvenient and uncomfortable, and even our own brokenness.
Break These Chains by Just Jamez, Tony Louie, Big D
These three Colville tribal members won a 2019 Native American Music Award for Best Rap Hip Hop Music Video with Break These Chains, a song about overcoming obstacles, elevating one’s state of mind, and embodying Native Culture as pathway to healing. Turn up the volume.
Diary of a Tap Dancer by Ayodele Casel
“We all have something to say. We have something to give, something to communicate about who we are and where we’ve been. Diary of a Tap Dancer is predicated on the belief that by revealing our stories, we expose our shared humanity and provide a deeper understanding of how our life experience moves the dance.” —Ayodele Casel
The Courage to Walk in Beauty by Sarah Crowell
Sarah Crowell, the dynamic founder of Oakland's acclaimed Destiny Arts Center, reveals the unstoppable power and beauty of empowering multicultural young people through dance, theater, violence-prevention and creative leadership training. A call to action. From Bioneers.
Black Public Media Summit Keynote by Phil Agnew
Phil Agnew recently kicked off the virtual Black Public Media Story Summit in June with this unforgettable keynote talk, a vibrant call to action for black artists. He calls up the words of Marcus Garvey, “Up you mighty race, accomplish what you will...we have a beautiful history and the one we will create in the future will astonish the world.
11:00am PT - 12:00pm PT
Reclaiming The Past, Owning Our Stories
The stories in this hour: combine past, present and future in bold, interwoven narratives, examine history through the lens of the now, and celebrate blackness through poetry and images we cannot forget.
You Have The Rite by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
In a breathtaking, jazz-inflected spoken-word performance, TED Fellow Marc Bamuthi Joseph shares a Black father's tender and wrenching internal reflection on the pride and terror of seeing his son enter adulthood. With an introduction by Marc Bamuthi Joseph from the Kennedy Center
All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 by Chinaka Hodge and the Oakland Museum
This video features Black Panther Party members and young activists, artists, poets, and community advocates answering questions and reflecting on the Black Panther’s legacy and its resonance with today. It was created for the exhibition, All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50 at the Oakland Museum of California from October 8, 2016-February 26, 2017.
Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs with Riggs interview by Karen Everett
Marlon Riggs' classic documentary essay film Tongues Untied (1989) elevated the lived experience of black gay men, presenting their cultures and perspectives on the world as they confront racism, homophobia, and marginalization. The film broke new artistic ground and was embraced as a fierce response to oppression.
Where I’m From by re:imagine/ATL
Where I'm From is a re:imagine/ATL Production, in association with AT&T, Atlanta Police Foundation, & @Promise Center. In this film, a young man narrates his own story in a journey of creative self-discovery. “Where I’m from, you got to be persistent. It’s life and death, you gotta turn yourself inside out to find the truth…”
Through A Lens Darkly + Family Pictures USA by Thomas Allen Harris
In Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photography and the Emergence of a People, black photographers challenge definitions of blackness and reflect on how their community has used the camera as a tool for social change. FAMILY PICTURES USA journeys through a rapidly changing landscape where the hallmarks of a familiar and idealized “America” are being transformed.
Reparation by Macky Alston and Selina Lewis
Macky Alston and Selina Lewis Davidson, friends and filmmaking partners for 25 years, white and Black, set out to explore the possibility for reparations in the United States. Together they discover and follow grassroots initiatives intended to heal the historic harm of slavery and Native American genocide. Special sneak preview screening of a work-in-progress.
12:00pm PT - 1:00pm PT
Women and Girls Rising
Join this screening to celebrate the complexity and power of the female creative experience; multi-generational, multi-cultural; multi-vocal, all rising.
You Made Me Lose My Accent by Valentina Vargas
"This rather simple spoken word piece reflects in a very personal way, the universality of people who have lived some kind of exodus ... by writing it and performing it I only thought of my parents, the ones that gave the opportunity to face life in the hardest but most loving way."
I’m Afraid To Go Outside by Joni Whitlock & re:imagine/ATL
"My film, I Am Afraid to Go Outside is about the struggles many people all over the world face when they are challenged by their own anxieties to not leave the comforts of their home. I created this film during my senior year of high school, (before I found my signature artistic style) and still find it relatable for today’s society and the new “norm” we are all facing. I hope this film inspires someone out there who is struggling with agoraphobia to face their anxieties and take full control over them."
Women Dancers Redefine Oakland’s Street Dancing Scene by Jessica Jones/KQED Arts
Filmmaker Jessica Jones tells the story of Mix’d Ingrdnts, a multi-ethnic and diverse collective of female artists who work together as an all styles dance company, with the intent to cultivate a strong, intergenerational community of artists through urban performance, dance education and connection.
Love and Stuff by Judith Helfand
In this New York Times Op-Doc filmmaker Judith Helfand turns the camera on herself and her family, examining her life after her mother passes away, struggling to pack up her things, figuring out what to keep -- and how to let go.
Omiero By Ifayomi
Omiero is a short film by the artist Ifayomi, distributed in partnership with Radical Remedies, a program of Detroit Narrative Agency. Radical Remedies is a program that uplifted community stories to build collective healing and power and redistribute resources to artists. Ifayomi’s work is centered around ritual, memory, self intimacy, and prayer. She finds inspiration in the layered stories and experiences of Black Femmes, African diasporic connections to water, ancestral magic, and what it means to find “home.”
Teen Poet Slam FInals By Aiya Meliani/Youth Speaks
In this spoken word poem from Youth Speaks and the 2019 Teen Poetry Slam Finals, AIya Meilani steps up as a young radical futurist with a message for all of us.
My Name is Andrea by Pratibha Parmar
"This is a film like no other — lyrical and journalistic, placed in time and also timeless. And now that Andrea Dworkin's words are turning out to predict headlines, from Times Up! to the gender of terrorism, this film will illuminate what's going on and help us know what to do." — Gloria Steinem. Special Sneak Preview of a work-in-progress.
1:00pm PT - 2:00pm PT
IDENTITY + BELONGING
These stories explore who and what we are, alone and together, in the diaspora of an environment turned in on itself, a virus forcing a new reality, as Bill T. Jones says, “as concrete as language, and as fugitive as movement.”
Sing Their Names, by Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz-Sapp, The Universes
Sing Their Names is a galvanizing elegy to Black lives lost to unjust and violent policing. “The impassioned masterwork contextualizes the dismaying effects of fatal circumstances that befall Blacks performing ordinary activities in America.” Sing Their Names represents a commitment to commission and develop new plays that represent the kaleidoscope of the human experience, building a new American theatre repertoire that vigorously includes the voices of artists of color." -- Long Wharf Theatre
Borderland by Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis
Borderland explores the nexus of political and social forces roiling our southern border and acts of resistance by Americans to U.S immigration policies. Is U.S. foreign policy adequately supporting the battle against entrenched corruption in Central America? Or is it intensifying the root causes leading tens of thousands of migrants to arrive seeking asylum from the violence in their countries? The border will define who we are as Americans. Special sneak preview of a feature work-in-progress
Dancing An Indigenous Future by Shaandiin Tome
In Shaandiin Tome’s short film for the KQED series If Cities Could Dance, Albuquerque’s thriving hip-hop and freestyle dance scene is influenced by Indigenous dancers from many tribes, Pueblos and other communities. A strong sense of solidarity holds it all together, say dancers Anne Pesata (Jicarilla Apache) and Raven Bright (Diné).” This is Indigenous Futurism.
My Comment by re:imagine/ATL
Where I'm From is a re:imagine/ATL Production, in association with AT&T, Atlanta Police Foundation, & @Promise Center. In this film, a young man narrates his own story in a journey of creative self-discovery. “Where I’m from, you got to be persistent. It’s life and death, you gotta turn yourself inside out to find the truth…”
Blame The Muslims by Sameena Zehra
In this standup solo, international award-winning comedian Sameena Zehra begins a brazen monologue calling out Muslim-blaming as the “acceptable face of racism.” In her hilarious and intensely personal commentary, she demonstrates the power of storytelling to help us confront and heal some of our darkest moments.
Street Artist Reflects Native American Dignity at a Monumental Scale by Kelly Whelan and Chip Thomas
When images of everyday Navajo life began appearing at monumental scales on abandoned buildings, roadside stands and water towers across the Four Corners region, it was a surprise for many in the community to discover it was the work of Chip Thomas, a long-time resident known by many as a healer of another kind. Watch how the artist, aka Jetsonorama, honors the lives of his Navajo neighbors and shares stories of their resilience with the world at large.
2:00pm PT - 3:00pm PT
Future Wisdom
We look to a future where artists of all nations go to work building bridges and stories live forever. in this final section, we come together with music, dance, testimony and poetry, examining those spaces where as Lynette Wallworth says “our fears might lie but where hope could be.”
When Startled By Ambush Wild Boar Will Flee For The Mountains by Troy Osaki
“A bullet can rip holes through my people, and still, it cannot tear our movement apart.” A spoken word performance by Troy Osaki, three time Seattle Poetry Grand Slam Champion. He writes in hopes to build a safe and just place to live in by uniting the people and re-imagining the world through poetry.
Drums by Martha Redbone
Martha Redbone performed at the 2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival as part of the 40th anniversary Sisterfire concert. The song “Drums” was originally written by Peter La Forge, telling the story of thousands of Native Americans who were forcibly removed from their homelands.
Fondly Do We Hope Fervently Do We Pray by Bill T. Jones Arnie Zane Company
Singers and an actor deliver a probing and uplifting libretto drawn from the Old Testament, the poems of Whitman, and Lincoln’s own words in this excerpt from the full work by Bill T Jones. The phrase taken from Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address to title the work, Fondly Do We Hope… Fervently Do We Pray captures the vision of the piece: an examination of what Lincoln and his time mean today, and our hopes for the future.
The Role of Arts + Culture in An Open Society by Open Society Foundations
It takes imagination to picture a truly open society—one where freedom of expression and democracy are paramount, and where no one holds a monopoly on the truth. The Open Society Foundations have long supported artistic endeavors that aim to inspire this type of change.
Untitled by Lakesha Datts
This film is about the numbness of being traumatized by systematic racism and tragedy while feeling like you have to fight to dismantle a system in which the leaders that strive for radical change die.
Going To Mars by Michèle Stephenson + Joe Brewster
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project pushes the boundaries of biographical documentary film to reveal the enduring influence of one of America’s greatest living artists and social commentators. Combining parallel cinematic story editing with visually innovative treatments of her poetry, along with intimate vérité, rich archival footage, and Giovanni’s own captivating contemporary performances, Going to Mars recounts the story of the artist and her works of resistance through the tumultuous historical periods in which she lived—from the Civil Rights Movement, to the Black Arts Movement, to present-day Black Lives Matter. Sneak preview of a feature documentary work-in-progress
Vulnerability As Armor: A Litany for Survival in Pandemic Times by just wondering collective
A short, animated essay, a tribute to the profound impact of black lesbian poet and activist Audre Lorde. It is a visual poem in four sections: fear is normal, our differences are our strength, community care, a litany for survival. “What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other.”
Register for
the National Day of Storytelling
Although the National Day of Storytelling is open to the public, registering will grant you access to exclusive Zoom Conversations with our featured guests, and subscribe you to The Alliance's email listerv. You'll be provided with a link to the Zoom Conversations via email. We look forward to seeing you on October 10th!