Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Summary
Widely known as the play that gave the American dramatist Eugene O'Neill international acclaim, "The Emperor Jones" is a one-act play that follows the complete disintegration of Brutus Jones. This protagonist, formerly a Pullman porter in the United States, has escaped his criminal activity there by establishing himself as a ruler in the West Indies. O'Neill, in an experiment with Expressionism, then leads Jones through a series of hallucinations...
2) Men of honor
Summary
The courageous story of an African-American sailor who dared to dream of becoming a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Despite a ruthless training officer and a tragic shipboard accident, Carl's iron will is never broken. Against all odds, he pushes on to achieve the impossible.
Author
Summary
This collection includes Lynn Nottage's best known work, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, which has been produced widely since its premiere in May 1995 and which the Chicago Tribune hailed as "a complex and thought provoking new play." Also included are Mud, River, Stone, Poof, Por'Knockers and her latest work, Las Meninas, inspired by the playwright's research into the African presence in 17th century Europe. Lynn Nottage lives in Brooklyn, New York....
Author
Summary
Also includes: Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom, The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Betting on the Dust Commander, Pickling and Devotees in the Garden of Love, as well as several essays by Suzan-Lori Parks which provide insight into her provocative theatrical style and innovative vision. -- Publisher.
Summary
The story of the 'Fighting 99th' - the first squadron of black American pilots to be allowed to fight for their country. It is 1943 and the U.S. is suffering huge losses on the ground and in the air. Four newly recruited pilots are united by a desire to serve their country, at a time when black flyers were not welcomed in the Air Force. Now, the "Tuskegee Airmen" must undertake the riskiest mission of their lives and to prove to America that courage...
Series
Criterion collection volume 1106
Summary
A fictional account of one amazing night where icons Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown gathered discussing their roles in the Civil Rights Movement and cultural turmoil of the '60s.
11) Sounder
Summary
Set in rural Louisiana during the Depression, this heartfelt story tells of a sharecropper family struggling to overcome adversity. After stealing to feed his family, Nathan is sent to a prison camp. In their fight for survival, his determined wife and their eldest son hold the family together. Once the boy becomes an adult, he searches for his father but instead discovers manhood.
12) The Inheritance
Summary
Pennsylvania-born filmmaker Ephraim Asili has been exploring different facets of the African diaspora—and his own place within it—for nearly a decade. His feature-length debut, THE INHERITANCE, is a vibrant, engaging ensemble work that takes place almost entirely within the walls of a West Philadelphia house where a community of young people have come together to form a collective of Black artists and activists.
14) The Ball Method
Summary
Alice Ball, a 23 year old African American Chemist living in 1915 Hawaii fights against racial and gender barriers to find an effective treatment for leprosy before Kalani, a 10 year old patient is exiled into the leper colony of Molokai.
15) The blackening
Summary
The film centers around a group of Black friends who reunite for a Juneteenth weekend getaway only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer. Forced to play by his rules, the friends soon realize this ain't no motherf****** game. Directed by Tim Story (Ride Along, Think Like a Man, Barbershop), this film skewers genre tropes and poses the sardonic question: if the entire cast of a horror movie is Black, who dies first?
16) 12 years a slave
Summary
The harrowing account of a black man, born free in New York State, who was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery in 1841. Having no way to contact his family, and fearing for his life if he told the truth, Solomon Northup was sold from plantation to plantation in Louisiana, toiling under cruel masters for twelve years before meeting Samuel Bass, a Canadian who finally put him in touch with his family, and helped start the process to regain his...
17) Carmen Jones
Summary
Joe, a military policeman about to make officer, is infatuated with the flirtatious and sexy Carmen Jones. Their ill-fated romance comes to a grisly end by the conclusion of the drama but not before their liaison has wreaked havoc with their lives and all who cross their paths.
19) Ganja & Hess
Summary
Flirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and the horror cinema, Bill Gunn's revolutionary independent film Ganja and Hess is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American identity. Duane Jones (Night of the living dead) stars as anthropologist Hess Green, who is stabbed with an ancient ceremonial dagger by his unstable assistant (director Bill Gunn), endowing him with the blessing of immortality, and...
20) Malcolm X
Summary
Screen version of the life of Malcolm X, who through his religious conversion to Islam, found the strength to rise up from a criminal past to become an influential civil rights leader.
