de Young Museum premieres black box version of “When We Gather”

When We Gather
Film Screening and Q+A

de Young Museum, Virtual Wednesdays
February 24, 5:00 pm – 5:45 pm (PST)
No registration required. Watch on YouTube here. 

Join us for the premiere of When We Gather (2021), a five-minute black box version of the film that celebrates the women who have played an elemental role in the progress of the United States and offers a call to create a path forward for the leaders of the future. Following the film, gallery artist and lead creative, María Magdalena Campos-Pons and the film’s Executive Producer, Wendi Norris, will be in conversation with Natasha Becker, Curator of African Art at the de Young Museum about the making of the film and its central themes of healing, creativity, and unity.

Conceived by Campos-Pons in collaboration with LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs and Okwui Okpokwasili, the artists choreographed circular movements and gestures from diverse traditions evoking storms, spirals, and ancestral energy. The soundscape incorporates both lyrics and a poem written by Diggs for the project. When We Gather was originally inspired by the election of the country’s first female vice president and performed during a pandemic by seven artists in separate studios and outdoor spaces in Brooklyn, Houston, Boston, and Nashville then woven together by the film director Codie Elaine Oliver [Black Love, OWN]. A three-minute broadcast version of the film debuted on January 27, along with When We Gather: Together a 35-minute behind the scenes special hosted by Dr. Nikki Greene of Wellesley College that contextualizes the film and features diverse interpretive performances and interviews with the artists, director, and arts and education professionals. To learn more about When We Gather visit whenwegather.art.

Image: Samita Sinha, María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Dell Marie Hamilton performing in When We Gather. Photo: Tommy Oliver