ICD Film, Theatre & Literary Festival Launches Exo-Genesis Movement for Caribbean-American Heritage Month
by MISANI
Special to the AmNews
Originally posted 5/31/2007
Exo-Genesis 2007 is a twenty-first century cultural movement experience integrating film, theatre and literature. This is the theme that will pervade the International Caribbean Diaspora (ICD) Film, Theatre and Literary Festival for three evenings, on June 13, 14 and 15, at the newly renovated Schomburg Center for the Research in Black Culture at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem.
Launched during the newly legislated Caribbean-American Heritage Month, which was signed into effect in 2006 by President George Bush, the ICD Festival boasts the award-winning actor, singer and voiceover artist Keith David, who will serve as celebrity host of the event. Along with yours truly, David is the founder/producer of the festival, which this year honors the international filmmaker Euzhan Palcy with a retrospective of some of her powerful, groundbreaking work.
The Euzhan Palcy Retrospective line-up includes screenings of “A Dry White Season” (1989), on Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00 p.m.; “Sugar Cane Alley” (1983) on Thursday, June 14 at 8:10 p.m. and “The Killing Yard” (2001) on Friday, June 15 at 7:00 p.m. The screenings will be followed by “A Conversation with Euzhan Palcy and Keith David,” who will discuss the making of each film. A panel discussion will take place after this segment, followed by a Q&A. The Euzhan Palcy Retrospective will be held in the Langston Hughes Auditorium. (Panelists for this segment will be announced next week in this column, as well as on the www.icdfilmfestival.org website).
On Wednesday, June 13 at 7:00 p.m., in the Archives Room, a Caribbean-American theatre workshop titled “Packaging the Caribbean-American Theatre for the Twenty-First Century” will feature selections from the hit Caribbean-American repertory Theatre production “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl” by Errol John...
...Panelists will include producer Rudolph Shaw and director Shirley Parkinson of “Moon…” as well as cast members David Heron, Carla Brothers and Erwin A. Thomas.
Also on the panel is talent agent Shirley Faison, actress Brenda Denmark (commercials), and actresses Melanie Nicholls-King, Heather Simms and Magaly Colimon, as well as hip-hop artist Kulcha Don. Arthur French will serve as the moderator of this panel.
On Friday, June 15 at 7:00 p.m. in the Archives Room, A Caribbean-American Literary Workshop titled “Go Get a Book in Your Hand” will focus on the theme Broadening Scholars’ Horizons Through Literature. This workshop will examine Caribbean-American literature for young adults and will serve as a centerpiece to pay tribute to the Trinidadian-American award-winning author Madame Rosa Guy, who specializes in this genre. The phenomenal actress Magaly Colimon, a graduate of Yale, will read excerpts from “The Friends.”
A panel discussion will follow the reading. Panelists include Marva Allen (CEO, Hue-Man Bookstore & Café); Cherise Davis (Editor-in-Chief, Plume Books); DePrator (Educator); Kristin Fayne Mulroy (Editor-in-Chief, NY Amsterdam News); Kenton Kirby (Editor-in-Chief, Caribbean Life); and Sarah McNally (CEO, McNally-Robinsin Booksellers). I will serve as moderator of the literary panel workshop.
ICD’s Exo-Genesis 2007 is a people’s movement, similar to other significant cultural ones such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement and the Reggae Movement. With the year 2007, which is symbolic of the completion of a cycle, the ICD Festival is a movement whose time has come. Commenting on the movement are some of the artists who will be participating in the festival.
Haitian-American stage and screen actress Magaly Colimon, who received her training at Yale, will be participating in the Caribbean-American literary workshop and the Caribbean Theatre workshop. She states, “When Misani called me and told me about the festival, a big smile inched its way across my face...
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