Please join Kulturally Lit, The James Baldwin Project, Possible Futures, and Best Video Film & Cultural Center for a free screening and discussion of the film JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET at 3pm on Sunday, April 7th in honor of the yearlong celebration of James Baldwin’s 100th birthday. The post-screening discussion will be led by Kulturally Lit’s Ife-Michelle Gardin and the film’s producer and director, Karen Thorsen. The Best Video Coffee Bar will be open for beer, wine, and café drinks. RSVP required.

PLEASE RSVP HERE

About JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET

The feature-length 16mm documentary JAMES BALDWIN:  THE PRICE OF THE TICKET has received stellar reviews and awards.  Honored at festivals in over two-dozen countries – including Sundance, London, Berlin and Tokyo – BALDWIN was described as "Splendid"  by Variety, "A video page-turner"  by The San Francisco Chronicle, and "A haunting, beautifully made biography"  by the Los Angeles Times.  "Stays with you after the program ends,"  said the New York Times. 

• An emotional portrait, a social critique, and a passionate plea for human equality, JAMES BALDWIN:  THE PRICE OF THE TICKET is now considered a classic.  Without using narration, the film allows Baldwin to tell his own story:  exploring what it means to be born black, impoverished, gay and gifted – in a world that has yet to understand that “all men are brothers.” 

• BALDWIN is a vérité feast.  Intercutting rarely-seen archival footage from over one hundred sources and nine different countries, the film melds intimate interviews and eloquent public speeches with astounding private glimpses of Baldwin.  The film also includes a rich selection of original footage:  scenes from Baldwin’s extraordinary funeral service; explorations of Baldwin’s homes on three continents, including France, Switzerland, Turkey and Harlem; plus on-camera interviews with close friends, colleagues and critics.  Witnesses include his brother David; biographer David Leeming; writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, William Styron, Ishmael Reed and Yashar Kemal; painter Lucien Happersberger and entertainer Bobby Short.  Cinéma Vérité … Passé. 

• Back in 1989, JAMES BALDWIN:  THE PRICE OF THE TICKET premiered on PBS/American Masters.  Since then, repeated PBS broadcasts have reached millions of people.  The film has also been broadcast widely in Europe and Asia – and in 1998, an hour-long version was produced for French National Television.

About Karen Thorsen - Producer / Writer / Director
JAMES BALDWIN:  THE PRICE OF THE TICKET

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Karen Thorsen finds inspiration at the intersection of art and social justice. Her heroes are game-changers, the artist/activists who shape history; her films tell stories without narration, weaving first-person narratives with archival treasures.
Thorsen began as a writer.  After graduating from Vassar College, with a year at the Sorbonne, she was an editor for Simon & Schuster, journalist for LIFE Magazine, and foreign correspondent for TIME. Screenwriting followed, then directing.
Her first feature-length documentary as Producer/Director was the award-winning JAMES BALDWIN:  THE PRICE OF THE TICKET—with Co-Producers Bill Miles & Douglas K. Dempsey, Executive Producers Albert Maysles & Susan Lacy for PBS/American Masters.  Widely considered a classic, the film has been honored in twenty-five countries … and is a centerpiece of Thorsen’s non-profit initiative, the JAMES BALDWIN PROJECT (JBP).
Supported by the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and State Humanities Councils, JBP outreach & engagement has already reached tens of thousands.  In 2014, the original 16mm film was restored & re-mastered in honor of Baldwin’s 90th birthday; in 2015, JBP launched a nationwide series of film screenings, live presentations and public forums focused on inclusion and the meaning of brotherhood.  Now, for Baldwin’s 2024-25 Centennial, JBP is exploring the theme Identity, Then & Now, one community at a time. Read more about Karen Thorsen.

About Kulturally Lit
Founded in 2019 by Ife Michelle Gardin, Kulturally LIT began as a yearly book festival, Elm City LIT Fest, and a monthly podcast. Now, Kulturally LIT also produces Diasporacon, a yearly conference on careers in the graphic novel industry for the diaspora, working with the City of New Haven to select the first New Haven poet laureate, and the inaugural Diaspora Book Awards.
Our mission is to to cultivate awareness around the Arts within the African Diaspora, with a focus in literary arts. With faith, unity, creativity, and determination, we honor and celebrate the African Diaspora and the communities we create.
Kulturally Lit’s core is the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa: UMOJA (Unity), KUJICHAGULIA (Self-Determination), UJIMA (Collective Work & Responsibility), UJAAMA (Cooperative Economics), NIA (Purpose), KUUMBA (Creativity), and IMANI (Faith).
Our purpose is to merge these principles into our global community by producing celebrations, conferences, festivals, workshops and retreats that inspire self-awareness and honor the African Diaspora. We strive to shift the paradigm of how people of the African Diaspora value themselves and how others perceive and respond to its culture.

About The James Baldwin Project

“ If you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality ... then you can change it. ” ~ James Baldwin

• The Mission:  "We use the arts to open minds and change lives, with James Baldwin as catalyst.  To ensure that his message — that inequality and injustice impact ALL of us — will be heard and debated by those who need it most.  To engage diverse communities, to inspire dialogue across differences, to help us find common ground.  To expand understanding of ourselves and each other.”
  Inspired by Civil Rights activist / best-selling author James Baldwin (1924-1987) – and building on our award-winning film classic, "JAMES BALDWIN:  THE PRICE OF THE TICKET" (1990) – The James Baldwin Project  was created with the support of the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, various state-based Humanities Councils, foundations and individual donors.

• Live Events:  Launched in 2015, the heart of our effort is an ongoing series of nationwide Outreach & Engagement initiatives.  This series of community collaborations uses film screenings and live presentations to spark local discussions.  Over the past 8 years, we’ve brought explorations of diversity, discrimination and the meaning of brotherhood to schools, libraries, art centers, civic groups, churches and prisons - reaching thousands of people.  Events are currently booked well into 2025.

• Digital Curriculum Initiative:  Currently in development, this downloadable curriculum
  will bring Baldwin’s history, his writing and his view of humanity to our nation’s students – in middle school, high school, community college and beyond.  Initiated in response to requests from educators and parents all over the country, this will be a mix of study
  guides, lesson plans, performance prompts and social identity workshops:  all multimedia, all easily adaptable to existing courses of study – and all created by a stellar team of master teachers, curriculum specialists, social justice educators and Baldwin Scholars.

• Digital Digital One-Hour Version:  Currently in development.  This project has been shaped by female perspectives for well over three decades.  Since 1987, when James Baldwin died, Karen Thorsen has been Producer/Director/Writer.  Joy Birdsong, who was Associate Producer, Production Coordinator & Senior Researcher of our original 87-minute 16mm film, is now Producer of this 60-minute digital version, in collaboration with Thorsen.
  It’s no small feat to lose a third of a film without losing its impact; but the late memoirist, poet and filmmaker Dr. Maya Angelou will help make this possible.  As Baldwin’s best friend and his “adopted sister,” she was our film’s central on-camera Witness and off-camera Senior Scholar/Advisor until her death in 2014.  Now that same eloquent, unforgettable voice that reads Baldwin’s writings aloud in our film, will become the “narrative glue” which preserves the logic — and heart — of this substantially shorter Centennial version.  Dr. Angelou recorded these new passages with us, at her favorite hometown studio in Raleigh, North Carolina, as one of her final projects.
  Producer / Director Susan Lacy, founder of Pentimento Productions — and creator of the PBS series AMERICAN MASTERS — was Executive Producer of OUR original film, and has agreed to continue as Executive Producer of this iteration.

• James Baldwin Project Website:  Still evolving, this multimedia site has become a trusted resource for information on Baldwin.  During the Baldwin Centennial, we hope to archive more existing resources here, and create some new ones, like the Curriculum outlined below.

About Possible Futures

Possible Futures is a place where people come together to understand and learn from the past, thrive and grow in the present, and imagine and build a better, more sustainable, and socially just world.

Possible Futures is a community bookspace, a cross between a community reading room and an independent bookstore. It welcomes you, whether you're looking to purchase, peruse, or plan.

Possible Futures provides a curated collection of books, artwork, events, and goodies that feed the mind, nourish the body, and sustain the soul. It prioritizes shelf space primarily for authors and topics that have been historically underrepresented in publishing and on public shelves.

Possible Futures is a space for all knowledge-seekers and freedom dreamers. That said, it offers special supports, services, and programming for teachers, schools, and public education initiatives.