The Talking Drum
2022-05-02 00:00 (America/New_York) | VA
MAY 15
Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 3:30p • Free
428 N Arthur Ashe Boulevard Richmond, VA 23220
The Talking Drum

The drum is a legendary communications tool — a punctuating teller of life as it happens. This lively delivery of African and African American folktales and narratives combine with vocal and instrumental music to engage audiences along a rhythmic journey over continents and through time.
“Absolutely fantastic!”

In the Beginning… Virginia, Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans (May)
2022-05-14 13:00 - 16:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
Please join Elegba Folklore Society to experience In the Beginning… Virginia, Along the Trail of Enslaved Africans, a cultural history tour. Journey into Richmond’s history to visit sites to hear the stories that live between the pages of history books. Ponder the impact of enslavement on the enslaved as shared in their own words and from their own view. Walk in our ancestors’ footsteps from their arrival point at river’s edge into Shockoe Bottom, the area of Richmond that housed the holding pens, jails, blocks and burial ground. Learn from narratives of enslaved Africans, the historical record and characterizations of the day to immerse yourself in past occurrences that impact our perspectives today.
We will travel by bus and also on foot. Please wear comfortable shoes. Bring a bottle of water. Covid protocols.
This series begins on Saturday, May 14 at noon. Tours occur every second Saturday through November. Tickets are $15 for adults and $7.50 for children under 12.

***Check date availability at ticket purchase***

The Talking Drum
2022-05-15 15:30 - 17:00 | Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 428 N Arthur Ashe Blvd, Richmond, VA, 23220, United States
The Talking Drum

The drum is a legendary communications tool — a punctuating teller of life as it happens. This lively delivery of African and African American folktales and narratives combine with vocal and instrumental music to engage audiences along a rhythmic journey over continents and through time.

“Absolutely fantastic!”

3rd Saturday Documentaries: Black Girl
2022-05-21 17:00 - 20:00 | Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center, 101 E Broad St, Richmond, VA, 23219, United States
The 3rd Saturday Documentaries are returning to Elegba Folklore Society’s Cultural Center. Join us on Saturday, May 21 at 5p to view and discuss “Black Girl.” Free.

“Black Girl” is a film made by Ousmane Sembène in 1966 on location post-colonial Dakar, Senegal and Antibes, France. Documenting a true story, the film follows Diouana’s search for employment and what she perceives as a better life in France, Senegal’s colonizer. The film provokes thought about neo-independence, the self-view of African people, liberation and activism. Ousmane Sembène is hailed as the father of African cinema. “Black Girl” is considered the first major film produced by an African filmmaker.

Born in Ziguinchor, a city in the Casamance region of southern Senegal, in 1923, Ousmane Sembène grew up in Senegal when it was a French colony. In his early life, he was a fisherman, bricklayer, plumber and mechanic until he was drafted into the French Army during WW II. Afterwards, he remained in France, became a dock worker and taught himself to read and write in French.

In 1956, he published his first novel, “Le Docker noir,” or “Black Docker,” a memoir. His artistic expression developed with several literary works that drew from his experience of isolation living as an immigrant in France and the challenges of Africans navigating injustices in a post-colonial country. Senegal became independent in 1960, and Sembène soon became a member of the Global Nationalist Liberation Movement. He found film to be a greater vehicle for constituting, as he said, a “consciousness among the masses.”

Inside colonialism and its parallel dehumanization, the colonists’ camera was a tool of “empire.” Films made by Europeans were sent back to colonial centers to paint skewed and violent portraits of African people that justified colonization.

Citing the power of the oral tradition, Sembène says, “I’m not trying to make cinema for my buddies. What I’m interested in is exposing the problems of the people to which I belong. For me cinema is a political action.”

“Black Girl” considers the problem and the tragic need for action.

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