On June 14th at 6:30 p.m. join us for the screening of Acts of Reparation at the Friends Center at 1501 Cherry St. Acts of Reparation follows two friends as they explore what reparations means to them. Selina, who is Black, and Macky, who is white, have been friends and filmmaking partners for 25 years. Genealogy nerds, they travel south to reclaim and reckon with their roots. In the process they move from awkward outsiders toward belonging to broad kin networks who come along for the ride. From kitchen tables to porches, lost cemeteries to discovered diaries, their journeys lead to unexpected opportunities that transform their friendship, families and communities. In Monroe, Louisiana, Selina gathers stories from a sisterhood of her great aunties who together sleuth to uncover the buried tales of their ancestors. In Penfield, Georgia, Macky challenges generations of his kin to dismantle privilege they inherited from enslavers and support Black leaders nearby. In Acts of Reparation, we see everyday Americans become the change they want to see in the world. 

The screening of Acts of Reparation will be followed by a conversation with Breanna Moore, whose scholarly expertise is the abolition of the slave trade in the nineteenth century with an emphasis on the histories of the British Empire and the connections between the United States, the Caribbean, and the Sierra Leone colony. Her research interests include reparations, emancipation, and abolition in the African diaspora. Register here for Acts of Reparation.

On June 13th at 6:30 p.m. join us for the screening of the Cost of Inheritance at Mother Bethel AME Church at 419 6th Street. Building on key issues of diversity and democracy; slavery and its aftermath; and socio-economic indicators, the Cost of Inheritance puts real people and their family histories into the reparations debate. The screening of the film will be followed by a conversation with Sistah Patt Gunn, an acclaimed Gullah Geechee storyteller, activist, and small business owner who is a descendant of Africans enslaved in Georgia who is featured in the film, and Representative Chris Rabb, who has traced his own lineage linked to enslavement. The conversation will be moderated by Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, pastor of Mother Bethel AME Church. Register here for the Cost of Inheritance.

This May, Rough Drafts and repWorks present to you the second reparation salon. Building off the energy of the first salon, we further consider the ideas, emotions and energies of our community which inform conversations about repairing the harms of racial capitalism, colonialism, and chattel slavery. Music, poetry, performance and dialogue will assist our traversal through these challenging and multiplexed ideas.