African American
Love of Nationality and Citizenship
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterMoorish Science Temple of America, Inc.
This video is available for purchase as part of a Community Visions compilation DVD.
Taking video cameras to the street, members of Philadelphia’s branch of the Moorish Science Temple of America ask interviewees of various ethnic backgrounds a provocative question: can the term “African American” accurately describe one's nationality?
Petty's Island: A Sacred Part of America’s Story
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterCamden City African American Commission with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of the Precious Places Community History Project Vol. 3 compilation DVD,
Narrated by Danny Glover, Petty's Island: A Sacred Part of America’s Story reveals the legacy of an island with a unique place in the historic encounter between Africans, Europeans and Native Americans in the Philadelphia region. Situated in the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Camden, Petty’s Island was Lenni-Lenape land before colonial European slave traders utilized it as a depot for enslaved Africans in the 1600s. The 292 acre island is now a defunct oil terminal owned by the Citco Corporation.
Yorktown: You Are Here
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterYorktown Community Organization with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of the Precious Places Community History Project Vol. 3 compilation DVD.
Created in the early 1960s as an experiment in affordable home ownership for low and middle income families, Yorktown is one of North Philadelphia’s great success stories. Built on land that the Philadelphia Inquirer once dismissed as a gang and drug-ridden "slum,” Yorktown’s transformation was initiated by Bright Hope Baptist Church and 650 neighbors who banded together to address the housing needs of their community. They partnered with a development organization and formed a 98% black-owned housing cluster on 150 acres of prime land in North Central Philadelphia.
Keeping the Faith
Posted July 18th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterThe Islamic Cultural Preservation and Information Council with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of the Precious Places Community History Project Vol. 3 compilation DVD
West Philadelphia’s African-American Muslim heritage stretches back at least to 1949, with the establishment of the International Muslim Brotherhood. Founded by a North Carolina-born Baptist preacher who converted to Islam and, in turn, converted his entire congregation, the Brotherhood has long been a pillar for Muslims in the neighborhood. Keeping the Faith portrays the deep historical roots of the African-American Muslim community on Lancaster Avenue. It emphasizes the voices of the people who remember its beginnings and those who continue the work of preserving its legacy.
Putting the "Nice" Back in "the Town."
Posted July 17th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterNicetown Community Development Corporation with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.2 compilation DVD.
The Nicetown neighborhood in North Philadelphia has been known to suffer from an undeserved joke: that there is nothing "nice" here. However, many residents are quick to differ, pointing to the neighborhood's community life and historic attractions. The Nicetown Community Development Corporation, for example, offers a wealth of neighborhood programs including housing counseling, adult basic education, computer literacy, and social service referrals.
Parkside: A Camden Neighborhood
Posted July 17th, 2008 by Scribe Video CenterJewish Camden Partnership and The Parkside Business and Community with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.2 compilation DVD.
Predominantly Jewish from the early 1900s, the Parkside neighborhood of Camden, New Jersey changed rapidly into an African American community during the 1960s as its former residents moved to the suburbs. Parkside: A Camden Neighborhood is an ethnic history of the area told in the voices of both groups. But while they have raised families in the same neighborhood, attended the same schools and, in some cases, purchased the same homes, current and former residents inherited a different Parkside.
Taking of South Central…Philadelphia, The
Posted December 11th, 2007 by Scribe Video CenterOdunde with Scribe Video Center
Videomaking Consultant - Tina Morton; Humanities Consultant - Jeff Maskovsky, Post Production - Tina Morton
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.1 compilation DVD.
Once “South Philly,” the area along South Street is now “Center City.” As longtime residents around the 2100 block can attest, gentrification has besieged this close-knit neighborhood that is regionally famous for Odunde, an annual African street festival. South Street is located just blocks from Center City's skyscrapers, and with real estate values rising, longtime residents in this neighborhood increasingly face displacement as the borders of Center City march ever southward.
Unhushed!
Posted December 6th, 2007 by Scribe Video CenterThe Still Standing Project with Scribe Video Center
Production Facilitator - Iain Conliffe; Humanities Consultant - Biko Agonzino; Post Production - Brain Cook
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.1 compilation DVD.
Before artist and community historian Beverly Collins-Roberts set to work researching the topic, few living people knew that Pomona Hall in Camden, New Jersey, now the headquarters of the Camden Historical Society, had been the "big house" of an 18th century slave plantation. Owned by Marmaduke Cooper, Camden's founder, the plantation spanned 400 acres and covered much of what is now the Parkside neighborhood of Camden. Unhushed!
Next Stop: Freedom
Posted December 6th, 2007 by Scribe Video CenterFrankford Group Ministry with Scribe Video Center
Videomaking Consultant - Carla Lyndale Carter, Humanities Consultant - Rona Buchalter, Post Production - Carla Lyndale Carter
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.1 compilation DVD.
Frankford, one of the oldest communities in the county that came to be called Philadelphia, has a rich legacy of involvement in the Underground Railroad. Located just above the Mason-Dixon line, Pennsylvania—and Philadelphia in particular—was a major hub of anti-slavery activity. An 1830 Black political convention in Philadelphia to protest and organize against slavery encouraged abolitionists to use churches as sanctuaries for fugitive slaves. Next Stop: Freedom was shot by a group of Philadelphia high school students. They focus on Campbell A.M.E.
Under the Baobab Tree
Posted December 3rd, 2007 by SerenaPan African Studies Community Education Program [PASCEP] and Scribe Video Center
Serena Reed
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History compilation DVD
PASCEP is a 32-year-old, all volunteer education and outreach program that was created out of struggles in 1970s to make Temple University more responsive to the African American community in North Philadelphia where the University is based. Their video is a celebration of the history and the influence of this institution has had and all the incredible artists and educators who have come through PASCEP's doors.
PASCEP is the Pan African Studies Community Education Program. To access information about classes and other PASCEP activities, you can visit their web address at: http://www.temple.edu/pascep/
On Mt. Peace
Posted October 1st, 2007 by GretjenLawnside Historical Society & Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project compilation DVD.
On Mt. Peace by the Lawnside Historical Society (Lawnside, Camden County), chronicles the struggle of the members of the Lawnside community and The Lawnside Historical Society to maintain the 19th century historically black cemetery, Mt. Peace. Established in 1890 by African Americans to provide a burial place for their dead, Mt Peace is the final resting place of many Civil War veterans and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.
Lawnside Historical Society is a nonprofit membership organization which seeks to preserve and promote the heritage and history of the Lawnside, New Jersey community. The group’s video documents Mount Peace Cemetery, established in 1890 by African Americans to provide a burial place for their dead, and the struggle of local residents to have the cemetery designated as a historical landmark.
Todo El Mundo Dance
Posted July 19th, 2007 by Gretjen2000 Documentary History Project for Youth and Scribe Video Center
Amina Ekpaji, Charles Woodard, John Delancey, Llanira Esteves, Venture Lee, Joan Huckstep & Nadine Peterson
$79 for Community Institutions: Libraries, Schools, Non-Profits / $99 for Universities & Businesses
This short but lively doc produced by Scribe Video Center's annual Documentary Youth History Project explores the rich history of social dance in Philadelphia's African American and Latino communities. Get swept off your feet at debutante balls where young African American women have been introduced to society for generations with an elaborate waltz. Check out foot moves in Latino salsa on the dance floor. March to the drumming in the street during the Nigerian-themed Odunde Festival. Or just sample a preschool bunny hop or a hip-hop inspired breakdance session.
The 2000 Documentary History Project for Youth student media makers were: Amina Ekpaji (Thomas Middle School), Charles Woodard (Barratt Middle School), John Delancey (Frankford High School), Llanira Esteves (Kensington High School) and Venture Lee (William Penn High School)
Philadelphia-based independent producer Nadine Patterson has been making independent film/video for the past twenty years. She has produced and directed programs for the School District of Philadelphia's cable station, and WYBE Public Television. She earned her MA in Filmmaking at the London Film School. Previous work includes Shizue , a Scribe Video production that was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; and Moving with the Dreaming, winner of a Prized Pieces Award from the National Black Programming Consortium. A recipient of a Media Arts Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, her award-winning work has often been broadcast on public television.
Joan Huckstep works professionally as an independent choreographer, dancer, actor, and designer. She has received grants and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (1985-89) and was formerly on their Resident Artist Roster. Huckstep has appeared in numerous professional theater productions in Philadelphia and her hometown of Detroit. She has also been an educator with teaching experience in language arts and social studies from early childhood to undergraduate levels. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from Antioch College and a Doctorate of Education in Dance History with a concentration in public history (archival studies and oral history) from Temple University where she was a Future Faculty Fellow. Her research interests concern socio political embodiment in the dance traditions of African and the African Diaspora
September 14, 2000 - El Hispano newspaper
September 15, 2000 - "Documentary Chronicles Importance of Dance," by Kimberly C. Roberts, The Philadelphia Tribune
September 15, 2000 - "WHYY Premieres Scribe Video Center's Documentary Youth History Video Project, "Todo El Mundo, Dance!'" The Philadelphia Tribune
March 25, 2000 - Premiere screening at Youth Media Jam I, held at the Prince Music Theater (Philadelphia, PA)
May 2, 2001 - Festival of Independents screening as part of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (Philadelphia, PA)
September 18, 2000 - Broadcast on WHYY TV-12 (Philadelphia, PA)
2001 - 2002 - Council on Foundations Film & Video Festival (multiple cities)
October 15-17, 2001 - Council on Foundations Family Foundations Conference (Vancouver, Canada)
February 6-8, 2002 - Council on Foundations Community Foundations Conference (New Orleans, LA)
W.E.B. Du Bois : A Biography In Four Voices
Posted July 19th, 2007 by Gretjen
Produced and directed by Louis Massiah, Writer/Narrators: Wesley Brown, Thulani Davis, Toni Cade Bambara and Amiri Baraka
$99 for Community Institutions: Libraries, School. Non-Profit / $129 for Universities & Businesses
The long and remarkable life of Dr. William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B) Du Bois (1868-1963) offers unique insights into an eventful century in African American history. Born three years after the end of the Civil War, Du Bois witnessed the imposition of Jim Crow, its defeat by the Civil Rights Movement and the triumph of African independence struggles.
"A beautiful and moving epic - not only about a brilliant and important figure but about the struggle of a people in the 20th century...Will make a wonderful teaching tool. I was personally inspired." -- Lani Guinier, University of Pennsylvania
"An absolutely incredible job! Your film on Du Bois nears perfection . . . A resonantly full work of art. I can't imagine that Du Bois himself would not weep in gratitude upon seeing the work." -- Houston A. Baker Jr., University of Pennsylvania
Louis Massiah is the founder and executive director of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, a media arts organization that provides low-cost workshops and equipment access to emerging video and filmmakers and community organizations. He is an independent filmmaker who has produced and directed a variety of award-winning documentary films for public television.
Known for his explorations of civil rights themes and crises in the African-American community, his credits include two films in the Eyes on the Prize II series and The Bombing of Osage Avenue, about the burning of a black section of Philadephia as a result of the police bombing of the headquarters of the group MOVE. He is also the director of W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices. Massiah has received awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the the National Black Programming Consortium, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and several Emmy award nominations. In 1996, he was a recipient of a five year John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship. His current project, Haytian Stories, examines the complex relationship between the United States and Haiti over the last 200 years.
April 1996 - Circle Audience Award Winner, FilmFest DC (Washington, DC)
November 1997 - Bronze Plaque in Social Issues category, The Chris Awards, The Columbus Film and Video Festival (Columbus, OH)
November 15, 1995 - "Du Bois film to have advance showing here," MIT News Office
April 25, 1996 - "All Together Now: Scribe Video's Louis Massiah uses many voices to tell the story of W.E.B. Du Bois," by Jeannine DeLombard, Philadelphia City Paper
May 2, 1996 - "Well-attended Tribute Features New Document Comments on 'Philadelphia Negro' Reissue," by Jehron Hunter, Black Issues in Higher Education
February-March 1997 - "W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices," American Visions
February 7, 1997 - "Pioneer in Sociology, Persevering Fighter for Civil Rights," by Walter Goodman, The New York Times
February 8, 1999 - "Third World Center hosts movie, lecture on life of W.E.B. Du Bois," by Triza Cox, The Daily Princetonian
February 23, 1994 - Excerpts screened at Celebrating the Birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois event, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York, NY)
June 21, 1996 - Boundaries · Bodies · Borders, American Studies Summer Institute (Pullman, WA)
November 2, 1996 - Presented by Gerald Horne, Department of History, University of North Carolina at American Studies Association Annual Meeting: GLOBAL MIGRATION, AMERICAN CULTURES, AND THE STATE (Kansas City, MO)
1997 - Film/Video/Television & Socio-Economic Transformation in the African World, African Humanities Institute Programme, University of Ghana (Legon, Ghana)
February 7, 1997 - Broadcast nationally on PBS
February 20, 1997 - Film Studies Center at the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
October 5 & 6, 1997 - New Docs, Neighborhood Film/Video Project at International House (Philadelphia, PA)
October 20 & 24, 1998 - Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
February 7, 1999 - Screened at Third World Center, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Summer 1999 - Du Bois Week, Institute for the International Education of Students, American Studies Program Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
March 6, 2000 - Screened as part of "Telling Lives: African American Autobiographies 1890-1960," Ramapo College (Mahwah, NJ)
March 21 - 24, 2000 - Inaugural Mercer University Symposium, Mercer University (Macon, GA)
February 7, 2002 - Part of Louis Massiah's appaearance as new artist-in-residence in the Afro-American Studies Program at University of Pennsylvania, International House (Philadelphia, PA)
February 20, 2002 - Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY)
February 5, 2003 - Colby College (Waterville, ME)
February 5, 2003 - Featured screening in The Council on African Studies and the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale University's VISIONS OF AFRICA: Contemporary African Cinema series
February 11, 2003 - Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA)
May 15, 2004 - "The Search for Equality: Brown Vs. Board of Education" film series, Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA)
February 7, 2005 - Screening of the first and second parts of the film, John Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
February 23, 2006 - Louis Massiah presents film in celebration of Du Bois' 138th birthday at Haverford College's Multicultural Center (Haverford, PA)
Rubin Edwards on Bass
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenTodd Lear
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
Rubin Edwards, an accomplished bass player, is also a skilled barber. In this idiosyncratic portrait of the talented hyphenate, Edwards muses about his two lives and the choices he's made in a lyrical conversation with videomaker Todd Lear while getting a hair cut.
Todd Lear is a video artist who works and lives in the Philadelphia area.
Rubin Edwards is a Philadelphia producer, songwrite, musician and charter bassist with a jazz-fusion band called Catch 22. He continues to cut hair in Philadelphia and play bass guitar at music events throughout the region, including popular recent stints at the annual Cape May Jazz Festival. He produced contemporary jazz artist Lynn Riley's self-titled album in 2006.
August 15, 1999 - Street Movies screening at Malcolm X Park (Philadelphia, PA)
Struggles In The Shadows : Philadelphia's Free African Youth
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Scribe Video Center, in conjunction with WGBH's documentary series "Africans in America,"
Hébert Peck Jr. and Roxana Walker-Canton
$79 fr Community Institutions: Libraries, School, Non-Profits / $99 for Universities & Businesses
What is history and who makes it? Developed under the auspices of the Philadelphia Youth Initiative as part of an eight-city educational project inspired by the PBS series, "Africans in American," the production of Struggles in the Shadows was guided by Scribe Video Center, WHYY TV 12, and Temple University's Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection.
Teens participating in the 1998 Documentary History Project for Youth were: Michael Barron (a freshman at Girard Academic Music Program), Kyle Devero (then a Roxborough High School graduate and Temple University attendee), Bonnie Friel (then a Masterman School graduate and Sarah Lawrence attendee), Lizandra Ocasio (then a student at Masterman School) and Michelle Theorgood (then a High School for Creative and Performing Arts sophmore).
October 2005 - Listed on Upcoming Events page, Philadelphia Public School Notebook
October 20, 1998 - Broadcast on WHYY-TV 12, a PBS affiliate (Philadelphia, PA)
May 7, 1999 - Street Movies screening, part of 1999 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, held at Playground of William Penn High School (Philadelphia, PA)
March 25, 2000 - Youth Media Jam II at Prince Music Theater (Philadelphia, PA)
