It’s VIDEO FRIDAY, so today I am posting about a movie related to the Black Lives Matter Period of my LEROI: Living in Color Exhibition, "100 Years From Mississippi.”
What’s the connection?
Simply put--- Mamie Lang Kirkland.
As a kid growing up on the East Side of Buffalo, Mrs. Kirkland’s son, Tarabu Betserai Kirkland, was one of my best friends. The side benefit to our friendship was the homemade meals Mrs. Kirkland continually fed us, and the stories of her life that she told as we ate.
While every family has pivotal moments they like to share around the table, Mamie Kirkland’s stories were so much more. They entailed the history of life-threatening discrimination against Black people that happened in the 111 years of her life between September 3,1908, and December 29, 2019.
For instance, having to flee with her family at age 7 from their home in Ellisville, Mississippi to Buffalo to escape an approaching lynch mob. Or the horrific Mississippi lynching of her father’s friend before an assemblage of 10,000 spectators.
Despite Mrs. Kirkland’s staunch refusal to ever return to Mississippi, Tarabu ultimately wore down her resistance. At the age of 107 Mamie Kirkland began a journey with her son into the deep South and the lifetime of traumatic memories she had endured and would now once again face.
Thankfully, Mrs. Kirkland agreed to allow the experience to be filmed, and under her son’s caring production and direction a documentary of her life now exists from which we can learn as no history book could ever teach us.
On November 17th, one week after my LEROI: Living in Color Exhibition Opening, the Burchfield Penney Art Center will present a special screening of “100 Years From Mississippi” as part of their, Beyond Boundaries Screening & Discussion Series.
I encourage everyone to attend---meet Mamie Lang Kirkland in this wonderful film--- and hear her remarkable stories, just as I did those many years ago at her kitchen table.
The Burchfield Penney Art Center screening of “100 Years From Mississippi” will be presented in conjunction with the LEROI: Living in Color Exhibition. The film will begin at 7pm and will include a post screening discussion. Admission is free. Check out the trailer below for a clip of this remarkable film.
LEROI: Living in Color Exhibition includes the work of students from Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology (BCAT,) Buffalo Public Schools (BPS,) Just Buffalo Literary Center (JBLC,) and Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center. The exhibition will be on view at the Burchfield Penney Art Center through March 26, 2023, presented by M&T Bank, with additional support from organizations and individuals throughout the Western New York community.