A living documentary
The Neo African Americans is a living documentary; it’s never really finished. It’s a conversation—a conversation about how rapid, voluntary immigration from the Caribbean and, especially, Africa is transforming the African American narrative. It’s a conversation about identity, it’s a conversation about America, it’s a conversation about immigration, and for that matter, the global movement of people.
The documentary itself improves with input from screening audiences, so what you see today may be different from what you see a year later, based on suggestions from screenings. After 30 screenings and discussions, I still hear suggestions and perspectives that I hadn’t heard or considered before. At the Schomburg Center screening, for instance, the audience called for more Afro Latino perspective, and that will duly be incorporated in the next iteration of the documentary.
Cool project so glad i discovered it. It brings to mind the question of negotiating my identity as a person who is Ugandan (father) and Black-American (Mother). While I am both things, when people see me they percieve me as primarily African and my younger sister as Black American. It is very complex and interesting on how this percieval impacts us differently in the world. I would be interested it to learn if this aspect has been explored by your work as well. Both my parents are of Afro descent, but the cultures are very different to the point of my experience being a a bicultural one. I would be interested in learning more about how things such as: knowing the language, having visited the country, whether one’s name sounds “American” or foriegn, and how one may look. Also how one may try to exploit the ambiguity of their identity in certain instances, by negotiating or highlighting particualr parts versus others in certain instances. I think this could be very interesting to see because I think at certain times people choose to highlight what serves their interests most and answers are sometimes adjusted. Fascinating project!!!!