Event
OPC Benefit: Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
EXCLUSIVE EAST BAY SCREENING
AWARD-WINNING NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT
HISTORIC BLACK NEW ORLEANS NEIGHBORHOOD AND IT'S MUSIC
Special Guests: Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir
Perfomances by: The OPC Youth Marimba Ensemble, and OPC's Frederick Douglass Youth Ensemble
Screening and Discussion with Iconic New Orleans Newspaperman and Author Lolis Eric Elie
All Proceeds Benefit the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music
The winner of Best Documentary at the 2008 San Francisco Film Festival, Faubourg Trem: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans is a riveting tale of hope, heartbreak and resiliency that takes viewers into an little-known part of American history set in this fascinating New Orleans neighborhood where jazz was born. The screening will coincide with the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
Arguably the oldest black neighborhood in America, Faubourg Trem was home to the largest community of free black people in the Deep South during slavery and a hotbed of political ferment. Here black and white, free and enslaved, rich and poor cohabitated, collaborated and clashed to create Americas first Civil Rights Movement and a unique American culture. The levee failure and ensuing flood of 2005 heavily damaged Faubourg Trem.
This exclusive, one-night-only event is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, August 29, at the Kaiser Center Auditorium, 300 Lakeside Drive, 2nd Floor. On hand to introduce the film and discuss it with audiences will be its co-producer, co-writer and central narrator, nationally renowned New Orleans newspaperman Lolis Eric Elie. Director Dawn Logsdon and co-producer Lucie Faulknor will also bring their perspective and expertise to the panel discussion.
All proceeds benefit the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, the East Bays leading source for affordable jazz education and performance for local youth and families.
American music would undoubtedly don a different swagger without the city of New Orleans, and the Trem district in particular, said Angela Wellman, founding director of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. We at the Conservatory are committed to passing on this heritage to the young people of Oakland. This event is a perfect opportunity for our community to celebrate jazz and the city that birthed it, and to support our efforts to nurture jazz appreciation in the next generation.
In the film which critics have called revelatory and flat-out brilliant Elie takes audiences on a tour of his city, and explains why this most un-American of American cities must be saved. But the neighborhoods recovery after Katrina is just another chapter in its singular history.
In the early 1800s, while most African Americans in Louisiana and the rest of the South were toiling on plantations, free black people in Trem were publishing poetry and conducting symphonies, Elie said. Long before Rosa Parks, Trem leaders organized sit-ins and protests that successfully desegregated the city's streetcars and schools. And jazz, the area's greatest gift to America, was born from the embers of this first American Civil Rights movement.
The mission of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music is to connect East Bay youth and their families the world-class instruction and performance of private conservatories at affordable rates. The Oakland Public Conservatory of Music exists to provide local audiences access to and an appreciation of our rich, shared and diverse American musical heritage.
The event is made possible by Memphis Minnies Barbeque Joint and Smoke House of San Francisco, which Gourmet Magazine said may well be the finest barbeque restaurant in the state. It also features musical performances Oakland Public Conservatory Youth Marimba Band and The Frederick Douglass Youth Ensemble.
Faubourg Trem: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans was executive produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/musician Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Nelson (Jonestown, Murder of Emmett Till); directed by Dawn Logsdon; co-directed and written by Lolis Eric Elie; produced by Lucie Faulknor, Lolis Eric Elie and Dawn Logsdon; edited by Dawn Logsdon, Sam Green (Weather Underground) with original music composed by Derrick Hodge (of Terrence Blanchards Band).
Tickets for the screening are $25 in advance, $30 at the door and can be purchased at
Brown Paper Tickets website goes here.
All proceeds benefit the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music.
Visit the Conservatory online at www.opcmusic.org
To view a trailer or for more information about the film, go to HYPERLINK "http://www.tremedoc.com" www.tremedoc.com.
This film is a co-production of Serendipity Films, LLC, Independent Television Service (ITVS), WYES-TV12 New Orleans and Louisiana Pubic Broadcasting (LPB) in association with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).
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LocationKaiser Center Auditorium
300 Lakeside Drive, 2nd Floor
Oakland, CA 94605
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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