SUNDAY DINNER for SIMON BENJAMIN - screenings + conversation in community
A partnership between Wa Na Wari, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, Black Cinema Collective
April 7th, 4:00 pm - 6:00pm
Sunday dinner, Sunday pie, Sunday roast, Sunday greens, Sunday rice and peas, Sunday at grandma’s house. Throughout the African Diaspora we share traditions of Sunday dinners, a special mid-late afternoon gathering around slow cooked food, donning our Sunday best for worship at church. Historically it was the time when families, neighbors, and friends, would take the time to check in with community kin and leaders, guide the younger generations through games and storytelling, while honoring family elders and their memories. Sunday was the time to gather, to be in our best dress, to give thanks in the transition from the work of the last week, into the possibilities of the new one to come.
Simon Benjamin, a Jamaican born artist based in New York, makes work about the colonial legacies that impact Afro-diasporic peoples through the lens of the Caribbean. On his first visit to Seattle as the 2024 Jacob Lawrence Gallery Legacy Artist-in-Residence, he is discovering new intersections in the Pacific Northwest. Coastal traditions and histories of movement and migration impact the traditions we keep, or how they evolve, and the interconnections we find along the way. For this Sunday Dinner engagement we will gather in ease with Simon for a select screening of his short films, enjoy some warm sustenance and story sharing traditions before we transition into another week.
Berette S Macaulay is an interdisciplinary artist and writer with creative and cultural practices in photography, mixed media, curating, and art organizing. She is the founder of Black Cinema Collective (BCC) which celebrates African and Afro-Diasporic films, and is a project of the collaborative arts incubator, i•ma•:gine | e•volve. She is currently serving as Guest Curator for the 2024 Jacob Lawrence Gallery Legacy Residency Program, its exhibition and supporting engagements.