Juneteenth Film Screening

​​Join us at Impact Hub New York as we observe Juneteenth at our Midtown innovation center.

​We come together to watch and engage with documentary storytelling exploring themes of land, sustainability, and liberation, in the spirit of ​Juneteenth, which honors the constant hope for self-determination, citizenship, and democracy and true liberty. 

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​1 - Video from work-in-progress Fairweather Wilds
by Nyasha Laing, one of Impact Hub's most cherished members. 

​​As a child visiting Belize, Nyasha Laing traveled to the mahogany plantation that her grandfather, “Pa Hen,” or Henry Fairweather, had established. With a vision to restore the value of Belize’s rainforests for Belizeans, Pa Hen; a notable Black land surveyor and town planner planted over 140,000 mahogany trees between the ages of 76 and 96. Twenty years later, with both financial and ecological risks to the land increasing, the plantation remains unfinished work. The project is exploring possible directions for both storytelling and impact.

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​​2. Feature Presentation: Farming While Black

​​In the new documentary film, Farming While Black (SXSW EDU), Leah Penniman, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, reflects on the plight of Black farmers in the United States. From the height of Black-owned farms at 14% in 1910 to less than 2% today. Leah and her Soul Fire Farm cohorts help propel a rising generation finding strength in the deep historical knowledge of African agrarianism - and its potential to save the planet. The documentary film examines the historical plight of Black farmers in the United States and the rising generation reclaiming their rightful ownership to land and reconnecting with their ancestral roots.

​Bios

​Mark Decena, Writer and Director - A three time Sundance alumni, Mark's first feature, Dopamine won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize. Decena's documentary work spans across themes of social justice, sustainable design and the environment. He wrote and directed the Redford Center film, Watershed, and was a writer and producer on Stand Up Planet, a Gates funded project that aired on Participant Media’s channel, Pivot and KCET. His latest feature film, Not Without Us, premiered as the closing night film at the S.F. Green Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. Decena’s latest short films, Remothering the Land, co-produced with Patagonia Films, premiered at the DC Environmental Film Festival, and Me & My Robot premiered at COPDOX and aired on PBS. Mark is also the founder of Kontent, a boutique production company based in San Francisco, housing a Kollective of award winning filmmakers, producers and creatives working on original and branded works.

​Leah Penniman - is a Black Kreyol educator, farmer/peyizan, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, NY. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2011 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection to land. As co-Executive Director, Leah is part of a team that facilitates powerful food sovereignty programs – including farmer trainings for Black & Brown people, a subsidized farm food distribution program for people living under food apartheid, and domestic and international organizing toward equity in the food system. The work of Leah and Soul Fire Farm has been recognized by the Soros Racial Justice Fellowship, Fulbright Program, Omega Sustainability Leadership Award, Presidential Award for Science Teaching, NYS Health Emerging Innovator Awards, and Andrew Goodman Foundation, among others. Her book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide is a love song to the land and her people.

​Nyasha Laing is Founding Partner & Impact Producer of Red Owl Partners. She's a storyteller, strategic advisor and lawyer focused on partnership, engagement, and equity strategies, campaigns and engagement and facilitation tools for both creative industry and social justice clients. Her independent films have been featured in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Pan African Film Festival, Indie Memphis, the Johannesburg Film Festival, BBC World Service, the Art Museum of the Americas, and universities around the world. Her impact work has been featured on WORLD and PBS.