Event

John Henrik Clarke

Guest Speaker: Andre Boxwill - Like his spiritual and intellectual mentor, Andre Boxwill, a student at Friends World College, has worked extensively in community development in Ethiopia and Latin America.

In St. Clair Bournes documentary, John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk, Clarke, like an African village griot-historian, delivers in a chatty, homespun style his wide-ranging knowledge that penetrates deep into the past of African life. As he chronicles his life and times we learn of his growing awareness of the deep significance of his Black African heritage. Inspired by Pan Africanism, as writer, teacher, historian, and Harlem community activist, he taught that well before Christ, when European tribes were building huts in the forest, Black Africans along the Nile River created mighty kingdoms, put large armies into the field, and had all of the signifiers associated with high culture: universities, books, scholars, literature, art, and music. Clarke committed his life to resurrecting African history and demonstrating that history bore the same relation to its people as a mother to her child. For the most part, the library was the university for this Black sage who taught at Cornell University and CUNYs Hunter College. Clarke served as an advisor to Ghanas founder, Kwame Nkrumah, to Malcolm X, and was a critic of Martin Luther King Jr. and Minister Louis Farrahkan.

USA, 1996, 92 min., color and b/w Director: St. Clair Bourne Executive Producer: Wesley Snipes Sundance Film Festival