ABOUT AFRICAVILLE:
A small Nova Scotia town settled in the waning years of the eighteenth century by formerly enslaved people is the inspiration for Jeffrey Colvin’s rich and unforgettable debut novel, Africaville, which chronicles three generations of the Sebolt family—Kath Ella, her son Etienne, and her grandson Warner—whose lives unfold against the tumultuous events of the twentieth century. The sweeping, lyrical story filled with unforgettable characters, takes readers from Nova Scotia to Montreal, New England and the Deep South as it explores notions of identity, passing, cross-racial relationships, the importance of place, and the meaning of home. The events are: Out of the Loop, art installation with sound, Jeffrey Colvin and Plain Sight Project discussion at the Arts Center At Duck Creek, Springs; Staged Reading of Africaville at John Drew Backyard Theater, Guild Hall; and Writing the Past to Right the Future, an Activist Panel at The Church, Sag Harbor. Purchase Africaville through Canio’s Books: https://bookshop.org/shop/caniosbooks
PRESENT TENSE: BLACK LIVES MATTER(ED) EVENTS:
@DUCK CREEK
EVENT 1:
PRESENT TENSE: BLACK LIVES MATTER(ED): OUT OF THE LOOP
CONTENT WARNING: PLEASE BE ADVISED, THIS PROGRAM CONTAINS DOCUMENTATION OF EVENTS THAT INCLUDE GRAPHIC LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE. PLEASE ATTEND LISTENING AND READING STATIONS WITH DISCRETION.
Installation by Jeffrey Colvin with sound design by Colvin and DJ Potts
Saturday and Sunday, August 15th and 16th, 2-6 pm
Arts Center At Duck Creek 127 Squaw Rd, Springs, East Hampton, NY 11937
Free Event, Self Guided walk with Black Lives Matter(ed) representative available to answer questions
”We must move Out Of The Loop, repeating the same egregious injustices inflicted on Black communities--day after day, year after year, century after century. And we must move out of the loop of repeating the same ineffective responses. We need new insights, but also a national will to do better. This installation, looping audio of media reports about racial injustices along with excerpts of Africaville, invites the viewer to enter this conversation and carry away their own insights and desires for action.” - Jeffrey Colvin
EVENT 2: (WAITING LIST ONLY)
AS PART OF THE PLAIN SIGHT LECTURE SERIES: Saturday, August 15th, 5 pm
Arts Center At Duck Creek 127 Squaw Rd, Springs, East Hampton, NY 11937
This Free Event will take place OUTDOORS without a RAIN DATE.
A recording will be posted on the Plain Sight Series page at https://www.duckcreekarts.org/plainsightproject
Free copies of the book will be given to the first 15 RSVPs. Books can be collected onsite at the talk.
Limited to 25 attendees. RSVP via email Jess Frost duckcreekarts@gmail.com
Donnamarie Barnes and David Rattray of the Plain Sight Project will be joined by author Jeffrey Colvin to discuss how his recent novel Africaville, relates to the stories of enslaved people on the East End of Long Island. Barnes, Rattray and Colvin will share their thoughts on how both his Out of the Loop installation at Duck Creek and their Plain Sight Project seek to support our “national will to do better.”
@GUILD HALL
EVENT 3:
PRESENT TENSE: BLACK LIVES MATTER(ED): Staged Reading: AFRICAVILLE
Written by Jeffrey Colvin, Directed by Andrina Smith
Saturday, August 15 at 8pm
John Drew Backyard Theater, Guild Hall, East Hampton Village
Event information at guildhall.org/events/staged-reading-africaville-by-jeffrey-colvin-directed-by-andrina-smith
A dramatized reading from Jeffrey Colvin’s new novel Africaville featuring Eric R. Williams and Regan Lopez, directed and narrated by Andrina Smith. Through the lens of Africaville's multigenerational historical novel set in parts of Canada and the southern United States spanning from 1780s to the 1990s, major themes such as Community Destruction, Police Brutality, Healthcare Inequity, Criminal Justice Reform, Protests and Passing as White bring new insight to our current efforts to combat structural racism. Director Andrina Smith's unique perspectives as a storyteller, a Shinnecock native, and a member of a multigenerational family legacy uniquely equips her to bring themes and scenes from Colvin’s novel to the stage. The cyclical nature with which our society revisits the ongoing racial structures of oppression occurs with devastating repetition. The echoes of our past resonate in the song of today and whether in directing, writing, sketch comedy, or performing, Smith explores the way in which that tune underscores our daily life.
About Africaville: Africaville was awarded the Honor Fiction Prize by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Africaville has also been featured in Publishers Weekly, NPR, Vogue, the Boston Globe, the BBC, the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Lithub and elsewhere.
@THE CHURCH THIS IS NOW A LIVE WEBINAR - SAME TIME! ONLINE! SEE CONNECTION DETAILS BELOW PROGRAM DESCRIPTON
EVENT 4:
PRESENT TENSE: BLACK LIVES MATTER(ED): Writing the Past to Right the Future
Sunday August 16 at 5pm
The Church, 48 Madison Street, Sag Harbor, NY 11963
This Free Event will take place OUTDOORS without a RAIN DATE, A recording will be posted.
Limited to 35 attendees, RSVP via email Sara Cochran scochran@sagharborchurch.org.
Activist Panel
Join us for a panel discussion about action with author Jeffrey Colvin and director/activist Andrina Wekontash Smith, cultural leader Bonnie Michelle Cannon, activist Willie Jenkins, Mental Health professional Allanah Evans and moderator Sara Cochran to discuss the pressing issues of our time and important themes in Colvin’s novel Africaville: namely social justice and the prison system, police brutality and social protest as well as the specific struggle of Black Communities in face of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
WEBINAR CONNECTION
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Webinar ID: 829 8980 1256
International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbYlFhxxWx
PRESENT TENSE: BLACK LIVES MATTER(ED) BIOS:
Jeffrey Colvin, Author, Activist Panel, In Plain Sight, Installation
Jeffrey Colvin’s debut novel, Africaville (Amistad/HarperCollins) was awarded a 2020 Honor Fiction Prize by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Africaville has been featured in Publishers Weekly, NPR, WBAI, Vogue, the Boston Globe, the BBC, the CBC, The Globe and Mail, Lithub, and elsewhere. His essays and short fiction have appeared in Narrative, Hot Metal Bridge, Painted Bride Quarterly, Rain Taxi Review of Books, The Millions, The Brooklyn Rail, and other magazines. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, Harvard University, and Columbia University, where he received an MFA in fiction. He is an assistant editor at Narrative magazine and this fall will be the Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown fellow at Brown University.
Andrina Wekontash Smith, Director, Staged Reading and Panel
Andrina Wekontash Smith is a Shinnecock writer, actor and performer who has spent her career exploring the various components of the human condition. She is a current house team writer/performer at the PIT in NYC. Andrina’s solo work has been featured in festivals throughout NYC, and the Tri-State area. She has performed locally at both BayStreet and Guild Hall, headed a successful summer theatre program at The Ross School in East Hampton as well as an alumni of The Watermill Center Artist-in-Residence program. Her work has been seen in the Diverse AF Festival, Solocom, and The Downtown Urban Theatre Festival.
Eric R. Williams, Actor, Staged Reading
NYC credits: Into The Woods (opp. Amy Adams; The Public), Playing Hot! (Ars Nova), O’Neil Unexpected (Metropolitan). Tours: Dreamgirls, Civil War. Select Regional: HAIR (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Ragtime (Ogunquit Playhouse), Passing Strange (Playhouse on Park, Studio Theater). Select Film/TV: Sole Kings, Introvert’s Guide to Activism, My Brothers and Me (dir. Donja R. Love). Training: Howard University. @AllFreshAiric - www.ericrwilliams.net
Reagan Lopez, Actor, Staged Reading
Actor. Writer. Strawberry blonde bombshell. I’m a New York City based actor and writer originally from El Paso, Texas. I have a BA in theatre performance from The Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I’ve continued to expand my technique around NYC at The Pearl Conservatory, One on One, The Peoples Improv Theater, and Actors Launchpad, among others. Currently, you can catch me on the sketch team, Like Butter and at my monthly PIT show, I Hate New York. To every role, I bring sunshine and energy as big as my home state. Sassy. Sweet. Sarcastic. Frank. Fearless. Colorful. Reagan. Fun Facts:I'm half Mexican, half Irish! My name is a mix of the two, meaning "little queen of the wolves."
Ronnie Williams, Actor, Staged Reading
Dancer to his own drum and a Texas native . Writer . Actor. Fashionista. He began his acting career as a young lad in a plethora of shows. Now a New York City based performer on a house team at the Peoples Improv Theatre. Credits include Mozart and Me (Dog), Man Frog and Other People (Man Frog), Psycho Beach Party (Chicklet), RENT (Angel), HAIR (Hud).
Taylor Red Fox, Actor, Staged Reading
Taylor Red Fox is an Algonquin Shinnecock and Hunkpapa Lakota woman of the Oceti Sakowin tribe. Taylor has been a New York native all her life. Growing up in her Shinnecock east coast culture in Southampton, NY, while journeying to Standing Rock every year, Taylor has been at the intersection of her cultures and communities. She is a cultural educator and artist of both of her Indigenous cultures as well as an actor. She moved to the New York City area from Long Island a year and a half ago to be closer to her acting career as well as artistic community. She has sharpened her acting chops on stage and on film in the last two years in the New York area and plans to continue to educate and hone her artistic abilities.
Delani Evans Beavers, Actor
Delani Evans Beavers was born inCalifornia and she is currently being raised in East Hampton, NY. She has a background in theatre, gymnastics, volleyball and surfing. She just celebrated her 14th birthday and will be entering her first year of high school in the fall. She is a dynamic, fun, and local advocate! People that know her, consider her to be the sunshine in the room.
Nashira Kelly-Browne, Actor
Nashira Kelly-Browne lives in New York City with her mom and three black cats. She’s appeared in her schools production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She’s also been in chorus for 6 years and enjoys singing, acting, and dancing
Bonnie Michelle Cannon, Activist Panel
Executive Director of Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center since 2007, Bonnie Michelle Cannon is a pioneer of leadership. The first African American women to be elected to the Southampton Board of Trustees, she currently serves on the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission and as chair of the Town of Southampton Housing Authority. A recipient of the Southampton Village Citizenship Award, she has also served on the Southampton Village Cultural Center Board and the Southampton Village Planning Commission. She is the co-founder of the East End African American Museum and Center of Excellence and Coordinator for Neighborhood Community Meetings. A graduate of Howard University with a degree in Computer Management Information Systems, Cannon spent 20 years in Regional and Senior Staff management positions at Verizon and has been Executive Director of the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center since 2007. The Center has grown and thrived under Bonnie’s vision and leadership. The educational and enrichment programs for after school children and teens have expanded. College Prep, SAT classes and one on one guidance are sending 5 of The Center’s teens to college this Fall. The THINKING FORWARD LECTURE SERIES, created by Bonnie a decade ago, includes the segments: Equality Matters in the Hamptons; Straight Talk, Real People; Well, Well, Well; The Politics of it All. It is a series ahead of the times, that aspires to bring the community together- educating and opening hearts and minds. The Center’s food pantry that pre-COVID served 70 per month, is now serving over 450 per week.
Willie Jenkins, Activist Panel
Willie Jenkins Bridgehampton Native is a 37 year old Community Organizer, Activist, Founder of the Zenith Youth Program, and Co-Admin of Black Lives Matter of The East End. He also is the Organizer of The Annual Bridgehampton Day, a huge event each summer bringing the people of Bridgehampton back together to celebrate their culture, rich town history, promote local businesses, continue their basketball tradition through an annual game, and to have an all out good time.
J Allanah Evans LCSW, Activist Panel
J Allanah Evans is the Coordinating Manager of the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, a Licensed Therapist at her eponymous private practice JAE Therapy, Honorary Clinical Instructor at Walden University, has worked in Bellvue Hospital Center’s Department of Psychiatry, and was a Forensic MSW Intern in Juvenille services of the Legal Aid Society. She also was an independent evaluator for the NYC Board of Education. Ms, Evans holds a Master of Science from Columbia University in Advanced Clinical Practice: Health, Mental Health and Disabilities.
Donnamarie Barnes, Plain Sight Project Chair Plain Sight Project, Chair; Curator/Archivist Sylvester Manor Educational Farm
Donnamarie Barnes has spent over thirty years working in the editorial photography field as a photographer and photo editor for publications such as People and Essence Magazines and as an Editor at the Gamma Liaison photo agency. A life-long summer and full-time resident of the SANS Community in Sag Harbor, she curated a highly-acclaimed historic tintype photography exhibition 2015 at the Eastville Community Historical Society entitled, " Collective Identity". Donnamarie began at Sylvester Manor in 2014 as a volunteer and history docent and in 2016 joined the staff as Curator & Archivist. Over the past three years she has curated the exhibitions, "Women of the Manor '', "A Place in Pictures" and "All That Has Been: Our Roots Revealed". Her work uncovering the lives and identities of the enslaved and indigenous people of Sylvester Manor is ongoing and is an integral part of the Manor's mission to preserve, cultivate and share the stories of all the people of Sylvester Manor.
David Rattray, Plain Sight Project Founder
David Rattray is the owner and editor of The East Hampton Star. He is the fifth member of the Rattray family over three generations to have held the post. He attended the Hampton Day School in Bridgehampton, N.Y. and graduated from East Hampton High School and Dartmouth College. His early jobs included summers as a busboy, an East Hampton Town lifeguard, an assistant caretaker on Gardiner's Island, selling fish, setting up party tents, making party rental deliveries, staffing the liquor checkout counter at a Cambridge, Mass., grocery store, and as a field archaeologist for the American Museum of Natural History. He was associate producer on the public television documentaries "The Hurricane of '38" and "Chicago 1968" for the American Experience and "Tabloid Truth" for Frontline. He worked for Design Division, a museum design firm in Manhattan, before returning to East Hampton in 1998 to work at The Star. He became its editor in 2003, succeeding his mother, Helen S. Rattray.
DJ Potts, Installation Sound Designer and Engineer
DJ Potts is a Sound Artist whose work is generally heard in Off-Broadway and Regional Theatres in the United States. He has one statement: "Please call the office of Louisville Metro Mayor, Greg Fischer, and Demand the Arrest of Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove for their involvement with the Murder of Breonna Taylor. BLM.”
Sara Cochran, Activist Panel Moderator
Sara Cochran has begun her Directorship of The Church with plans to lead the institution by work with Fischl, Gornik and the Board to open it, expand its board, build staff, establish strong relations with the community, and plan for its future growth. Cochran worked most recently with artist Gregory Sale on his year-long project Future IDs on Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay. She was previously Director and Chief Curator at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, where she doubled the museum’s annual attendance, increased its earned revenue and vastly expanded its presence on social media. During her tenure there, she curated eight exhibitions, including major projects with Betye Saar (2016) and Postcommodity (2015). She also organized a diverse series of programs including discussions with Founding Guerrilla Girl Kathe Kollwitz, Robert Irwin, Tom Sachs, Henry Rollins, Megan Rapinoe, and Dan Savage among many others, as well as running innovative events such as national film premiers, stand-up comedy, a book club, maker events, an escape room and collaboration with the City of Scottsdale to celebrate diversity. As Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Phoenix Art Museum, Cochran organized fifteen exhibitions including premiering and traveling Kehinde Wiley’s Memling Series in 2013. Under her leadership, the museum acquired over 200 works of art by artists such as Dan Graham, Sui Jianguo, Glenn Ligon, Maya Lin, Ruben Ochoa, Jennifer Steinkamp, Lawrence Weiner and Kehinde Wiley. Earlier in her career, she held curatorial positions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London and has a Masters from Université de la Sorbonne, Paris IV. In 2015, she was participated in the Getty Leadership Institute at Claremont Graduate University.
Christine Sciulli, Producer
Christine Sciulli is a visual artist whose installations have been shown in the US and abroad including the American Academy of Arts and Letters 2014 Invitational Exhibition, Guild Hall Museum, Shirley Fiterman Art Center, Parrish Art Museum, Islip Art Museum, South Fork Museum of Natural History, Edward Hopper House Art Center, Cologne’s MAKK, Herron Art Gallery and Smack Mellon Gallery. Sciulli received commissions from Dalhousie Art Gallery/NSCAD and Canada Council for the Arts to create Breath of the Sea, and from the Global Citizen Festival to create Expanding Circles. She has received awards and grants from arts and architectural organizations including LMCC, the Illuminating Engineering Society NY, AIANY and the IALD. Sciulli’s theatrical credits include light-video artist for the Mabou Mines “Song for New York: What Women Do While Men Sit Knitting”, directed by Ruth Maleczech. She has worked with Phantom Limb at Dartmouth College and Mass MoCA. Her video-electroacoustic collaborations with composer Doug Geers have been shown widely at European and American festivals. She holds MFA and BFA degrees from Hunter College and a Bachelor of Architectural Engineering from Penn State University. Moved to action, she wanted to make a platform for her friend Jeffrey Colvin to work with Black artists and activists to help make the societal changes we need to end systemic racism on the East End and throughout our world.