Special Programs

Breaking Poems

Poetry | Music | Special Guests

Saturday | March 13 | 7pm | Warren Easton Senior High School

An evening of poetry and music with Tony Award-winning Def Jam poet Suheir Hammad, Def Jam poet Sunni Patterson, Kalamu ya Salaam, and Michaela Harrison.

Fighting for Home: Housing Struggles Across the U.S.

Films | Panel | Discussion

Sunday | March 14 | 3pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Housing activists from Miami’s Take Back the Land, Brooklyn’s Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), and Mayday NOLA discuss housing issues in their communities. Featuring the film Coming Home: The Dry Storm and pieces from the multimedia documentary portrait Housing is a Human Right.

Flags on Fire: (Re)Actions from New Orleans to Gaza

Art Exhibition | Works by Abdul Aziz

March 12—March 21 | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

As the world’s economies continue writhe and geologic shudders shatter infrastructure from Santiago to Port-au-Prince, our global community is left questioning everything that once felt unbreakable. Working from a national context defined by privatization and occupation, photojournalist and activist Abdul Aziz explores two of the communities that define this new century: New Orleans and Gaza. As Iraq and Afghanistan reel from US occupation branded as freedom and democracy and Haiti begins its shift from after-shocks to shock doctrine, Aziz illuminates two worlds separated by thousands of miles but united in a common struggle for liberation and self-determination. In beautiful images of resistance and resilience, the peoples of New Orleans and Gaza set the flags of their occupiers on fire.

HAITI IS HOME: WE ARE HAITI

Saturday | March 20 | 6pm | Warren Easton Senior High School

Illuminating the deep bonds between New Orleans and Haiti, past and present, while generating resources for Haitian people. Through story, dramatization, music, and dance we will understand more… Please bring ‘donations for Haitians’ such as needed material items, monetary contributions, and other forms of sustenance. The event will also facilitate personal letter-writing and have a kids’ zone on site.

Haiti: Revolution, Reconstruction, Restitution

Teach-In | Films | Discussion | Fundraiser

Saturday | March 12 | 2pm | Warren Easton Senior High School

Haiti’s history of revolution, occupation, and exploitation, the emerging shock doctrine the US and corporate partners have planned, and what the American Left can do to support Haitian-led reconstruction. With Max Rameau of Take Back the Land, Valery Jean of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality, Bill Quigley of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Wadner Pierre, and featuring video reports from Haiti’s Ciné Institute. 2pm.

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In Our Own Image: Sex Workers Speak

Film | Panel | Discussion | Free Event (Fundraiser)

Sunday | March 21 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Screening of In Our Own Image: Sex Worker Made Media and the story of $pread Magazine, and panel discussion about corporate representations of sex workers and what sex workers and advocates are doing to challenge persecution by police, the justice system, and corporate media. Donations benefit Women with a Vision.

Media Into Action: Land of Opportunity

Film | Discussion

Wednesday | March 17 | 8pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

With the advent of new media content and distribution technologies, activists, advocates, and mediamakers alike are throwing out the old playbooks on how to use creative media for social change. Land of Opportunity, a multi-platform documentary project, has been on the ground filming in New Orleans since early 2006 and interweaves the stories of a diverse group of people as they struggle to rebuild New Orleans. From the urban planner to the immigrant laborer to the public housing resident, these people hail from different walks of life but share a stake in the rebirth of this beloved city. Through their eyes, we experience the dramatic ups and downs of a massive and unprecedented urban reconstruction process. This program focuses on how projects like Land of Opportunity can be used as organizing and action tools by communities and social justice groups working across the country. A brief excerpt of material from the work-in-progress will be screened, followed by a community dialogue about how to move engage audiences in order to achieve maximum impact. Co-Presented with New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC)

Media and Social Justice

Panel | Discussion

Wednesday | March 17 | 7pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Journalists discuss their role in social justice movements.

Trauma, Depression, and Black Women

Films | Panel | Discussio

Saturday | March 13 | 5pm | Warren Easton Senior high

Screening of the films Leader and Out of Our Right Minds: Trauma, Depression, and the Black Woman, followed by a discussion about the legacy of slavery and racist oppression that paint Black men as violent threats to society and render Black women invisible. Panelists include Stacey Muhammad (director, Out of Our Right Minds), Dr. Denese Shervington (Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies), Wendi O’Neal (Safe Streets Strong Communities), Valery Jean (Families United for Racial and Economic Equality), and Dave “Drizz” Rodriguez (Director, Leader)

Opening Night Program: Freedom Riders

Freedom Riders | Panel | Discussion | Benefit for Junebug Productions

Friday | March 12 | 7pm | Warren Easton Senior High School

Patois’ Opening Night features the New Orleans Premiere of the groundbreaking documentary Freedom Riders and a panel discussion with local civil rights movement veterans. Co-Presented with Junebug Productions, the panel participants include CORE and Free Summer Theater members Dodie Smith-Simmons, Matt “Flukie” Suarez, Frozine Thomas, and Chakula cha Jua. The panel is moderated by Wendi O’Neal.

Patois pour Haiti: Songs of Solidarity

Thursday | March 11 | 8pm | Maison

Songs of Solidarity from across the nation, featuring Luther Grey and Bamboula 2000, Wise Intelligent, E-PROPS, Bzy Bee, Truth Universal, and Slangston Hughes. Proceeds benefit Partners in Health. 8pm.

Race Peace

Workshop | Performance | Dialogue | Free Event

Sunday | March 21 | 12pm | Gris Gris Lab

Race Peace blends multi-disciplinary performance techniques with interactive dialogue to incite conversations about race and racism. Explode the myth that civic transformation only takes place at City Hall. We believe that true racial progress starts here—in small gatherings around the country. At each of our workshops, we use art-making as a tool for renewing conversations about race. Through art and performance, we provide an opportunity for people to experiment, celebrate and explore common bonds; to debate their differences and pursue solutions to ongoing problems. A project of Mondo Bizarro and M.U.G.A.B.E.E. (Men Under Guidance Acting Before Early Extinction), under the mentorship of Junebug Productions and Roadside Theater.

Salt of this Sea

PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE | Film | Poetry | | Introduced by Tony Award-winning actor and Def Jam poet Suheir Hammad

Friday | March 19 | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Soraya, born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees, discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948. Stubborn, passionate and determined to reclaim what is hers, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine. Slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own internal anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal.

State Violence and Community Response

Films | World Premiere | Panel | Discussion

Sunday | March 21 | 4pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Screening of Daggit Gaza and the World Premiere of Operation Small Axe, followed by a panel and discussion about state violence in New Orleans and Oakland, and violent and nonviolent community responses. With filmmaker Adimu Madyun, Prisoners of Conscience Committee Minister of Information JR Valrey, and activists and community members from Oakland and New Orleans.

White Anti-Racism: Freeing Silvia Baraldini

Film | Discussion | Filmmakers Present

Saturday | March 20 | 4pm | Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center

Screening of the powerful new film and discussion with filmmakers Margo Pelletier and Lisa Thomas and members of the Anti-Racist Working Group (AWRG) about the role of white anti-racist organizing in social justice movements.

Women and Power…(Re)Moved and (Re)Claimed

Dance | Performance | Music | Art

Saturday | March 20 | 10pm | McKenna Museum of African American Art

A combination of installation and concert dance, this evening of multi-dimensional works illuminates women’s embodied struggles, hopes, and truths, reclaiming the infinite power of women. Featuring New Orleans artists Michaela Harrison, Kai Knight, Kiyoko McCrae, Stephanie McKee and Monique Moss, with visiting artists Onye Ozuzu (Boulder) and Maresa D’amore-Morrison (New York). With additional choreography by New York artist Paloma McGregor. Presented by Moving Stories Performance Projects.

Women and Power…(Re)Moved and (Re)Claimed AFTERPARTY

Music | Fundraiser

Saturday | March 20 | 11pm | McKenna Museum of African American Art

Join DJ Dynamite Dave Soul in a celebration of Women and Power. A benefit for the Ciné Institute, Moving Stories Performance Projects, and Gris Gris Lab.