…What if we get it right? By “right” I mean finding that sweet spot between acknowledging and honoring traumatic experiences of the past and looking forward through a hopeful lens. I am always striving to strike this balance in my work with regard to marginalized communities, which is why I am so excited for our October lineup. On #WorldMentalHealthDay, October 10, the first half of our program at Zuckerman Institute will use our second feature-length screenplay, BRAINWASH, to focus on the impact of intergenerational trauma, PTSD, and invisibility: how it plays out in the brain and body. The second half of our public talk at Columbia University’s mind/brain/behavior center leverages our protagonist’s, Noel’s, resolve for solutions to look at actionable ways that we can and have activated for wellness. (Free tickets to BRAINWASH Storytelling: Black Women, Trauma, and Triumph are available via Eventbrite.)
Similarly, while FORGET-ME-NOT works to spotlight the senseless murder of Miriam Carey in the Capitol along with fellow Black women with unresolved deaths, we also highlight the beautiful ways that her sister and my co-producer, Val, goes about building upon her legacy. Whether planting seeds for Miriam’s namesake scholarship at her upcoming Butterfly Brunch, growing signature count for the petition to reopen Miriam’s case, or releasing butterflies on each of Miriam’s heavenly birthdays, Val is taking much-needed action to balance her and her community’s mental health while avenging her sister. We cannot wait for Conch Shell International Film Festival audiences at Forest Hills Regal UA Midway on 10/11 (with filmmaker panel beforehand) and 10/13 to experience her joyful, birthday ritual commemorating Miriam’s abridged life. Just search the film guide using my last name or film title for tickets to all showings.
“Sankofa” the swan-inspired insignia of African Burial Ground National Monument is a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol that translates to “to learn from the past.” Etched into the memorial’s Ancestral Chamber, its two swan necks craning back to form a heart illustrate the age-old wisdom of looking back to move forward. However, we tend to fall into the trap of either or: either dwelling on the trauma or abandoning it for utopian futurism. I am inspired to find a middle ground and stay present not only because I deem it necessary, but also because of how my childhood friends continue to push the needle doing so in their respective fields. Last blog, we touched on the middle school homie’s—legal eagle and professor, Joseline Hardrick’s—podcast and book that cultivate safe space for Black women to be vulnerable about our mental health and share ways we S.H.I.N.E. on.
This time around please meet Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, author of What if We Get It Right? and balance beam enthusiast from my Brooklyn YWCA gymnastics team. Yes, my dear friend grew up into a world-renowned, Earth-conserving, marine biologist and her newest offering is chock-full of poems, interviews, and dreamscapes for our climate. I encourage you to cop @ayanaeliza‘s New York Times best-selling anthology and come out on October 10, 11, and/or 13 for restorative cinema that builds on this transformative idea. As forward-thinking as we endeavor to be in straddling past and future in order to optimize the present in each of our industries—despite universally travailing tragedies like coastal flooding and executed innocents, #MarcellusWilliams being most recent—I am grounded in the ancestral wisdom of Sankofa and the fact that I come from a long line of African descendant trailblazers who did just that.
For Val’s first visit to the memorial, I immersed this freedom fighter into the buried legacy of those Black and brown communities who had such a large hand in our well-being as everyday New Yorkers, but are undocumented in textbooks. On that sacred ground, Val discovered such a visceral connection to her sister, Miriam, that the work sample footage that we were planning to pair with a PDF treatment of our small screen docuseries morphed into something unimaginable. Our impromptu video shoot resulted in a world premiere on the big screen and a catharsis like no other. As I keep telling stories that center muted communities like Black women for healing, I implore you to continue pressing toward the discovery that is inevitable when we seek answers to the million dollar question: what if we get it right?
