by datdudejbal | Mar 31, 2015 | Screenings
Running from April 16th to April 25th over two weekends, the 46th annual Nashville Film Festival will showcase 200 films that beat out a staggering 3,550 submissions which means that some notable documentary, film, short filmmakers were left in the cold while others will be screened in competitive and non-competitive categories. That’s pretty impressive, right? Participating in the Documentary Feature Competition, Rosenwald will be screened on April 19th at the Green Hills Cinema- Theater 16 at 7:00pm. Tickets will go on sale on April 6th at 10:00am.
Sharing an even deeper connection than NaFF, The Cairo School was built in near Nashville, Tennessee in 1922 under the funds of the Rosenwald Fund. Today, it looks almost exactly as it did when it was built, with a gable-end entrance, double-hung sash windows, weatherboard siding, and a stone foundation. In 1959, the school closed. Then, in 2008, the Tennessee Preservation Trust (TPT) was awarded a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Lowe’s to rehabilitate the Cairo Rosenwald School. The main reason the school was rehabilitated was that the TPT had seen how much the Cairo School had anchored its community, bringing together people of all ages for social and educational purposes. It is now one of only three Rosenwald Schools still standing in Sumner County, TN. The Cairo School appears in Kempner’s film Rosenwald, as it is near the Rosenwald filming location of Nashville, TN.
Key research was also done at the historically black college in Tennessee, Fisk University, which houses the archives of the Rosenwald Fund.
Some notable interviewees in the film are Julian Bond, John Lewis, Cokie Roberts, Ben Jealous, and A’Lelia Bundles.
To get more information about purchasing a ticket and other films that will be screened at the NaFF, click here.
by datdudejbal | Jul 16, 2014 | Rosenwald Fund
CNN reports that Ruby Dee, the remarkable actress and Civil Rights activist, passed away peacefully on June 11th at her home in New Rochelle, New York.
During the 1960s, Dee was acquainted with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. With her husband Ossie Davis, she was a key figure in the 1963 March on Washington.
Ossie, who passed away in 2005, will be featured in our film, The Rosenwald Schools, talking about Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Davis was a student at Howard University in Washington D.C. in 1939. He was inspired by the optimism of Anderson’s rendition of My Country, ‘Tis of Thee on the National Mall, a wonderful performance made more poignant by the D.A.R.’s refusal to allow her to appear at Constitution Hall. Ossie, who passed away in 2005, was filmed discussing the concert for a 1993 documentary entitled The Great Depression discussing the impact of Anderson’s concert on him as a young man.
Ruby Dee was a remarkable actress of stage and screen for more than half a century, starring on Broadway and in films like 1989’s Do the Right Thing and 1961’s A Raisin in the Sun. We will include excerpts from the latter film in The Rosenwald Schools‘ section on Chicago’s crowded “kitchenette” apartment buildings.
Ruby Dee with Sidney Poitier in the 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
by datdudejbal | May 14, 2014 | Connections
Sunday’s Washington Post had a lovely set of columns by women from Washington, and elsewhere, writing about their mothers. Among women like D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier and Rep. Jackie Speier, there was Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama.
Ms. Jarrett talks about respecting her mother, Chicago educator Barbara Bowman, for her promotion of early childhood education since the 1960s. “I feel that I stand on her shoulders,” she writes, complimenting Ms. Bowman for unapologetically choosing to be a working mother in spite of criticism and admiring her steady navigation of the inevitable household issues of marriage.
Barbara Bowman is a professor, author and expert on early childhood education. The daughter of Robert Rochon Taylor, she grew up in the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, Julius Rosenwald’s groundbreaking housing project for African Americans on Chicago’s South Side. Ms. Bowman speaks warmly about growing up in the comfortable, expansive building in our upcoming documentary, The Rosenwald Schools.
Barbara Bowman, talking to us about the Rosenwald Apartments
Photo credit: The Ciesla Foundation, September, 2011
Take the time to read about Barbara Bowman and other remarkable women in Ms. Jarrett’s, and the other columns, at the Washington Post.
by datdudejbal | Apr 21, 2014 | Ciesla Foundation
A new production of A Raisin in the Sun, starring Denzel Washington, debuted in the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York last week. The show is getting good reviews, including one by Ben Brantley of The New York Times.
Describing the set, Brantley writes:
A claustrophobic fatigue pervades the cramped, South Side Chicago apartment in which “A Raisin in the Sun” is set. And despite its often easygoing tone, a happy ending feels far from guaranteed. As designed by Mark Thompson, the Youngers’ living room cum kitchen is a narrow corridor that keeps its three generations of inhabitants in close, erosive proximity.
The kitchenette apartment where the action of A Raisin in the Sun takes place is based on the tiny shared-bath apartments that many African Americans called home in overcrowded, segregated early 20th century Chicago. After seeing the cramped conditions in the area of Chicago known as “The Black Belt,” Julius Rosenwald built the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, a spacious, modern, well-equipped building in the heart of the neighborhood in 1929. A scene from the 1961 film adaptation, starring Sidney Poiter, will be included in The Rosenwald Schools documentary and is already incorpoated in the twenty minute work in progress, which is used for fundraising to complete the movie. For ways to see the work in progress of the film and show it at a fundraising parlour party, contact cieslafdn@gmail.com. We would be most grateful and you would be listed among the end credits.
You can read more about the new Broadway production at The New York Times.
by datdudejbal | Aug 29, 2013 | Rosenwald Fund
On Tuesday, August 27th, the Ciesla Foundation joined On the Potomac Productions to present “Reflections on Jewish and African American Civil Rights Alliances,” a symposium remembering the collaboration between Jews and African Americans during the Civil Rights era and considering new ways for the two communities to work together in the future. Ciesla provided 501(c)(3) sponsorship for the event, which was held at NYU’s Constance Milstein Center in Washington D.C. Ciesla Director Aviva Kempner also spoke at the symposium about the Rosenwald Schools and screened the work in progress of Ciesla’s upcoming documentary about Julius Rosenwald.
Aviva Kempner and Gloria Davidson Hart
Photo credit: Tobiah Mues, Aug. 27, 2013
The Rosenwald Schools were one of the main topics on the “Education” panel. In addition to Aviva’s presentation, Gloria Davidson Hart recounted her experience going to a Rosenwald School and talked about the esteem the community had for the comparatively high quality Rosenwald Schools that were built throughout Southern states in the early part of the 20th century.
Rabbi Israel “Si” Dresner
Photo credit: Tobiah Mues, Aug. 27, 2013
Other highlights of the conference included Rabbi Dresner, who shared some stories about the time he spent with Martin Luther King Jr. and talked about the affinity he felt between the Civil Rights struggle and the Biblical Exodus. Clarence Page described his early days at the Chicago Tribune, at a time when some of his co-workers were worried that an African American employee would be too “militant.” Ron Carver implored the audience to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t act alone and that young people today need not wait for a savior like King to begin collective action. Glenn Rabin chaired the communications panel and discussed the effects of the recent loss of governmental policies to promote minority ownership of media. The audience also heard a recorded message from Julian Bond, who is working on a film project about the relationship between the birth of rock and roll and the Civil Rights movement called “Crossing the Color Line.”
Clarence Page
Photo credit: Tobiah Mues, Aug. 27, 2013
The final speaker of the day was Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray. As a young man, Gray’s parents encouraged him to attend George Washington University despite the fact that he would be one of the only black students on campus. While these difficult circumstances caused a few of his friends to transfer away from GWU, Mayor Gray found a home at Tau Epsilon Phi, a Jewish fraternity that accepted him as its first black member.
Mayor Vincent Gray and Mark Plotkin
Photo credit: Tobiah Mues, Aug. 27, 2013
Mayor Gray contrasted his experience as a minority at GWU with his time at the famous and predominately black Dunbar High School in Washington D.C. and named some of the remarkable alumni of the school, such as Charles Hamilton Houston and Dr. Charles Drew. Mayor Gray also mentioned Ernest Everett Just, who taught at Dunbar. Just, who had a special relationship with Julius Rosenwald and the Rosenwald Fund, will be the subject of an upcoming post on this blog.
Mayor Vincent Gray with Aviva
Photo credit: Tobiah Mues, Aug. 27, 2013
Thomas Hart Jr. of On the Potomac Productions put together an amazing group of speakers for this weekday morning symposium, and the Ciesla Foundation is grateful for the opportunity to participate.
From left to right: Clarence Page, Mark Plotkin, Rabbi Dresner, Thomas Hart Jr., Aviva Kempner, Leroy Nesbitt and Susannah Heschel
Photo credit: Tobiah Mues, Aug. 27, 2013
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