Through the interval of social unrest that dovetailed with the early a part of the pandemic, Musical Bridges Across the World began getting requests from colleges for on-line programming that handled African American tradition.
Group members began speaking about tips on how to add that type of materials to Musical Sprouts, their schooling program. “The Quilt: A Dwelling Historical past of African American Music,” grew out of that dialogue.
The movie, which might be screened Sunday on the Carver Group Cultural Middle, contains performances by a slew of San Antonio musicians, in addition to loads of archival materials.
“It’s such a wealthy and sophisticated historical past,” mentioned Julya Jara, who labored for Musical Bridges on the time and now could be primarily based in Austin. “And this mission, it type of began to have its personal life. It began to develop and pull in additional individuals and extra expertise, and this hive thoughts type of fashioned round it. And we simply served it in one of the best ways that we might all in our completely different areas of experience.”
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What: Premiere of “The Quilt: A Dwelling Historical past of African American Music,” a documentary produced by Musical Bridges Across the World.
When: Doorways open at 1 p.m. and screening stars at 2 p.m. Sunday
The place: Carver Group Cultural Middle, 226 N. Hackberry St.
Tickets: Free. Tickets could be reserved upfront on the Musical Bridges Across the World web site.
Jara directed and edited the movie, which was shot on the Carver.
“The Quilt” has been accepted into greater than a dozen movie festivals, together with the San Antonio Movie Pageant, the place it will likely be screened Aug. 4. It has scooped up a lot of awards alongside the best way, together with Finest Full-Size Music Documentary on the Queens Underground Movie Pageant in New York; second place as a Proud Texas Function within the Boomtown Movie and Music Pageant in Beaumont; and Gold Medal for Documentary Function Movie on the Atlanta Kids’s Movie Pageant.
The well-crafted documentary is constructed round an onstage dialog between a music historical past buff (Cynthia Freeman Gibbs) and her niece (Gibbs’ real-life niece Lauren Anya Jwahir Hunter). The youthful girl admits she finds music historical past boring, so her aunt works to indicate how the music of the previous connects to modern music.
In the movie, Gibbs attracts a parallel between African American music and quilts.
“Quilts live historical past,” she says. “They comprise layers, with items of fabric stitched collectively. Some quilters mix tales and tradition from our wealthy historical past on this nation and stitch all of it into one single quilt.
“Music does the identical factor.”
Beverly Houston, from left, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson and Veronica Williams are among the many San Antonio performers featured in “The Quilt: A Dwelling Historical past of African American Music.” The award-winning documentary was produced by Musical Bridges Across the World.
Robert MichaelsonShe then guides her niece by that historical past, beginning with the music made by slaves and referring to African American spirituals, blues, ragtime and jazz, the Harlem Renaissance, gospel, the civil rights motion, and soul and R&B. Close to the tip of the movie, her niece ties all of that into rap and hip-hop. The movie options a whole bunch of archival pictures and movie clips.
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Featured performers embody vocalists Beverly Houston, Veronica Williams and Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson; dancer Tanesha Payne; trombonist Ron Wilkins; and pianists Arlington Jones and Aaron Prado. Prado additionally served as music director and composed unique music for the movie.
Along with starring within the movie, Gibbs wrote the script and got here up with the quilt metaphor. She additionally reached out to the African American Quilt Circle of San Antonio to get them concerned.
Members initially offered accomplished quilts they’d available to be featured within the movie. Their involvement within the mission took a leap when Deborah Harris, who co-founded the group, steered they make a brand new quilt depicting the animated imagery woven all through the movie. It is going to be displayed on the premiere.
“It’s an honor to be a part of one thing that’s instructional however nonetheless inventive,” Harris mentioned.
