Events

Watson Events

POSTPONED: Summer of Soul - A Conversation with Questlove

Saturday, May 7, 2022

4 p.m. – 6 p.m.

This event has been postponed and will be rescheduled for September 17, 2022.

Tickets are sold out.

Reception to follow.

The John F. Kennedy Jr. Initiative for Documentary Film and Social Progress at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs is proud to present a conversation with Questlove and Professor Tricia Rose. They will be discussing Questlove's Academy Award winning documentary Summer of Soul.

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten–until now. SUMMER OF SOUL shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more.

Summer of Soul will be screened on Friday, May 6 at 7 p.m. in the Joukowsky Forum, 111 Thayer Street. Or watch on Disney+ or Hulu.

The John F. Kennedy Jr. Initiative for Documentary Film and Social Progress

Tricia Rose specializes in 20th century African-American culture and politics, social thought, popular culture and gender issues. She is the author of Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy (2003) and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). Black Noise won several awards including an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. She has been awarded such prestigious fellowships ad the Princeton University's Afro-American Rockefeller Postdoctoral Fellowship and the American Association of University Women Fellowship.