Black America Again Screening with Bradford Young and Common

This event is SOLD OUT!

At 7:05 p.m., we will release seats from ticket-holders who are not present. For an opportunity to claim those seats, please arrive as early as 5:30 p.m. We may not have enough free seats for everyone hoping to claim a seat. We will give out empty seats on a first-come, first-served basis.

This is a free event with general admission seating. Some seats may have a restricted view. A ticket is required for entry. Limit four (4) tickets per person. Doors will open at 6 p.m., and the program begins at 7 p.m. Please arrive early. If you have not checked in by 7:05 p.m., your ticket will be considered forfeited.

Join Carnegie Museum of Art, artist and Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young (Arrival, Selma), and hip-hop artist, actor, and producer Common for a screening of the short film Black America Again. This event also debuts REkOGNIZE, Young’s video installation that explores the history, legacy, and identity of Pittsburgh’s Hill District. The screening and REkOGNIZE are part of LIGHTIME, a year of programming from Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hillman Photography Initiative.

Set in Baltimore, this short film, inspired by Common’s Black America Again, is a celebration of the beauty, strength, perseverance and spirit of the Black community in spite of these troubling times. The film was directed by Young and complements Common’s 2016 album of the same title.

Immediately following the film, the Hillman Photography Initiative will host a discussion and brief audience Q&A with Young and Common. REkOGNIZE will also be open for viewing.

REkOGNIZE, a new work by Bradford Young, finds inspiration in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, a site of the early 20th-century Great Migration. During this time, millions of African Americans moved from the rural southern United States to cities in the north and west. The Hill District saw a flourishing of culture during these years and was a site of artistic development for luminaries such as August Wilson, Charles “Teenie” Harris, Errol Garner, and many others. REkOGNIZE takes its visual cues from the Pittsburgh landscape, especially the city’s tunnels, which serve not only as literal entry points into the city, but also as metaphors for this movement of people and culture. Its original soundtrack by Jason Moran finds rhythms and patterns in Harris’s photographs, viewed as digital code. The work will be on view at Carnegie Museum of Art June 17–December 31.

About the Featured Guests

Artist and cinematographer Bradford Young was nominated for an Academy Award in 2016 (Arrival) and is currently filming the untitled Han Solo Star Wars film. His short films include his 2016 collaboration with Common, Black America Again as well as Letter to the Free which screened at this years Tribeca Film Festival. Young’s two-channel video installation Untitled (Structures), 2012, produced with artist Leslie Hewitt, was commissioned by the Menil Collection with support from MCA Chicago and the Des Moines Art Center.

Common is an American hip hop recording artist, actor, film producer and poet from Chicago, Illinois. Common won the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the 2015 Academy Award for Best Original Song, for his song Glory from the 2014 film Selma, in which he co-starred as Civil Rights Movement leader James Bevel. Common’s acting career also includes starring significant roles in the films Smokin’ Aces, Street Kings, American Gangster, Wanted, Terminator Salvation, Date Night, Just Wright, Happy Feet Two, New Year’s Eve, and Run All Night.

Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hillman Photography Initiative is an incubator for investigating the rapidly shifting field of photography and its impact in the world today. Support for the Hillman Photography Initiative is provided by the William T. Hillman Foundation and the Henry L. Hillman Foundation. Design services generously provided by Clear Story.