Sarasota warmly received “Visions of the Black Experience,” a three-day, five-film event that occurred last weekend and drew close to 200 participants. The event, which celebrated black contributions to art, culture and science, was hosted by New College of Florida, in partnership with the Sarasota Film Festival, the Boxser Diversity Initiative, the Manasota branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, and the Multicultural Health Institute. It included hands-on hair care workshops, panel discussions by filmmakers, audience talkbacks, and a worldwide film premier, as well as documentaries of the contributions and achievements of black Americans.

The festival organizers curated a collection of films that centered black accomplishment, and explored themes of self-image and the breaking of stereotypes typically imposed on blacks in America as well as globally. Something the Lord Made, an Emmy-winning 2004 production, dramatically portrayed the groundbreaking contributions to cardiac surgery made by Vivien Thomas; while four documentaries examined the evolution of black identity and black entrepreneurship in the beauty industry, the global policing of natural black hair and the “new” natural hair movement, an African-American expedition to ascend North America’s highest mountain and the 20^th century’s pioneering African-American author and producer of more than 44 films, Oscar Micheaux.

Our country has a history of overlooking the contributions of certain people. It’s important to correct the record, not only for the benefit of those previously overlooked communities, but so that society as a whole can better recognize the untapped potential that exists—potential that needs only the opportunity to come forward and lift up us all.

Health and wellness, broadly defined, was the theme for Visions this year. There were a number of films focusing on beauty and self-image because beauty norms and standards that label the hair and bodies of some African Americans unacceptable, unprofessional, deviant, and even dangerous continue to negatively impact the opportunities, experiences, and self-image of many people. It was important to examine this form of inequity as well as celebrate the work of people challenging these beauty norms and creating more equity and acceptance.

Visions builds on the legacy of an earlier black cinema project called Project Black Cinema as well as the work of individuals who organized an African-American spotlight at the 2019 Sarasota Film Festival in April. Members of the original “Project Black Cinema” group—Charles Stephens, Ralph Barnett and Che Barnett—were on hand to discuss the significance of their efforts to promote and provide a platform for the cultural and artistic contributions of people of African descent. Founded in 1992 by a vanguard group comprised of graduate students in the FSU film studies program and other Sarasota residents, these pioneers offered the community a cultural bridge connecting them to the black diaspora experience through film, art, theatre, dialogue, and performance.

Original art by Eleanor (Ellie) Merritt Darlington, who served on Project Black Cinema’s founding advisory committee, was on display at the festival, creating a visual bridge between Visions and PBC.  Darlington’s painting, “Tribal Memories,” served as the basis for the unique icon that served as both a visual identity and fundraising source for Project Black Cinema.

PBC co-founder and artistic director Charles Stephens recalls the challenge he and Darlington had to address while developing the PBC logo: “There’s not one definition of Blackness; we were searching for a global identifier that could express the many facets of black life throughout the diaspora but also lend the sense of the space available for a more globalized discussion of what blackness was.”

Visions of the Black Experience is an important next step towards community-wide engagement and immersion in greater multicultural awareness through the arts. Sarasota is blessed to have community members that believe in the power of the arts to enrich our community and who will invest to make these experiences available. And New College is proud to be a convener and collaborator, and play host to what we hope will become a new Sarasota arts community tradition.

Visions of the Black Experience was free to participants, underwritten by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the New College Foundation, as well as the Harry Leopold Foundation and the David , Adrianne and Jordan Rubin Fund (both of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County), the Willa and Robert Bernhard Fund at Gulf Coast Community Foundation, and The Meliora Foundation, Inc.

Dr.  Lisa Merritt is executive director of the Multicultural Health Institute. Dr. Bill Woodson is the chief diversity officer at New College. Dr. Queen Meccasia Zabriskie, is an assistant professor of sociology at New College.