Category Archives: Announcements

A Unique Black History Month Event This Saturday!

Saturday, 18 February , 1 PM ET over Zoom Webinar

The Prep School Negro (2012): African Americans in Quaker Schools

Honoree: Quaker Educator Joan Countryman

This Saturday, the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum continues with our second event, examining the challenges of African Americans in Quaker schools and honoring lifelong Quaker-educator Joan Countryman. On Saturday, 18 February, we will screen the 2012 documentary, The Prep School Negro, directed by trailblazing filmmaker André Robert Lee, and discuss the trials and contributions of African American students, teachers, and administrators in Quaker education. This program begins precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Time over Zoom Webinar. You can register here for this event and receive a Zoom invitation to join the webinar 24 hours in advance. 

We are honored to be joined by the following guest experts:

André Robert Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, consultant, writer, and educator. André has served as a professor of writing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and teaches filmmaking at the Germantown Friends School, where he worked to develop a film program. His most recent film, Virtually Free (2021), tells the story of incarcerated youth in Richmond, Virginia, and is still on the festival route.

Joan Cannaday Countryman grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and became the first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School in 1958. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. We are thrilled to have Joan Countryman joining us as both honoree and guest expert.

Emma Bracker teaches history at Moses Brown School in Providence, RI, and has extensive experience in Quaker education as student and teacher. A graduate of Haverford College (BA – History) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.S.Ed.), she spent seven years teaching, coaching, and working in residential life at Westtown School in West Chester, PA.

We will open Satuday’s Zoom Webinar at 12:40 PM Eastern Time. Those who join early will be treated to a pre-screening mini-concert of selected music before our program begins at 1:00 PM ET. You can register here for EACH of our remaining screenings. Write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver 
Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host
theblackquakerproject@gmail.com

The Friends Historical Association is pleased to offer funding to support contributions to the field of Quaker history. There are three grant opportunities: project support, publication subventions, and research funds. All opportunities run on the same cycle, and applications are due April 15, 2023. Details about each opportunity and application instruction are provided at https://www.quakerhistory.org/grants.

The American Friends Service Committee
& The BlackQuaker Project
Present:

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum
Screening & Discussion Every Other Saturday
4 February 2023 to 8 April 2023, 1 PM Eastern Time  

Dear F/friends,          

The BlackQuaker Project (BQP) is proud to announce the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, a groundbreaking exploration of Black Friends who made a difference throughout both USA and world history. This year’s festival-forum features themes of importance to African American Quakers and others concerned with truth and justice: abolition, retrospective justice/reparations, freedom, education, Black-White relations, non-violence, and anti-violence in response to systemic violence. Our honorees range from 20th century trailblazing Friends of African Descent back to early Quakers of Color who are too often forgotten. Some of their stories will challenge Friends to consider what defines a Quaker, as we examine the lives of extraordinary people of color who were Friends in all but name, and ask ourselves what may have prevented or deterred them from joining the Religious Society of Friends. Our festival-forum begins on 4 February, in recognition of Black History Month, continues through Women’s History Month in March, and ends on 8 April with a special celebration of the momentous 125th birthday of prolific artist and human rights activist Paul Robeson, a descendant of over 200 years of Quakers. 

Screenings will be held over Zoom every other Saturday at 1:00 PM Eastern Time and will feature post-screening dialogues between invited guest experts, hosted by festival-forum director and curator Dr. Harold D. Weaver. We are honored to have eminent scholar-activists, writers, and historians, some of whom are descendants of our honorees, participating in this year’s dialogues, which will conclude with Q & A sessions open to our audience.

How to Register 

Free registration is open for EACH screening on our website here! Please note that you must register for EACH screening separately. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email and, 24 hours before the screening, you will receive a Zoom link for the event you chose to attend. You can view our full program schedule below. 

Saturday, 4 February 2023: Interview with Bill Sutherland (1999) –Liberation and Non-Violence in Africa & USA 

• Honoring Bill Sutherland (1918-2010): nonviolence advocate, veteran AFSC employee, imprisoned conscientious objector, friend and active supporter of African liberation and freedom fighters. 
• Featuring a discussion between Joyce Ajlouny (AFSC General Secretary), Keith Harvey (AFSC  NE Regional Director), and Dr. Matthew Meyer, co-author with Bill Sutherland of Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation (2001)

Saturday, 18 February 2023: The Prep School Negro (2012) –Joan Countryman: African Americans in Quaker Schools.

• Honoring Joan Countryman (b. 1945): first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School, longtime teacher and administrator in Friends’ schools, former head of Lincoln School and co-founder of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership School for Girls in South Africa.
• Featuring a discussion between the honoree, the film’s director-producer André Robert Lee, and Westtown School teacher-graduate Mauricio Torres (video recorded).

Saturday, 4 March 2023: Sisters in Freedom (2018) –Sarah Mapps Douglass: Women in the Abolition Struggle Against Slavery. 

• Honoring Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882): prolific educator, author, committed abolitionist, and ancestor of Paul Robeson.
• Featuring a discussion between eminent historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and author Joyce Mosley, a Bustill-Mapps descendant.

Saturday, 18 March 2023: Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars (1981) – Early African American Scholar-Activist. 

• Honoring Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806): almanac publisher, astronomer, petitioner to Thomas Jefferson for African American abolition, and faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting.
• Featuring a discussion with Banneker descendant-researchers of African and European descent: Gwen Marable, Dr. Rachel Webster, and Pamela Williams.

Saturday, 8 April 2023: Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1978) and The Proud Valley (1940) – Celebrating Paul Robeson’s 125th Birthday

• Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star.
• Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver.

To learn more about the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, please visit our official page for the festival-forum here on our BQP website.

Write to us at the theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum. Please feel free to forward this e-newsletter on to other organizations and individuals who you feel might be interested.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver
Festival-Forum Founding Director, Curator, and Host

Are you interested in building social justice in communities?

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is proud to announce the launch of the Emerging Leaders for Liberation. This program is open to young adults looking to deepen their social justice and leadership skills.

Here is a flyer:

Here are details:

And here are Frequently Asked Questions:

We sometimes post about upcoming events of potential interest to our members. One such upcoming event is The Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival.

From the website:

We are thrilled to announce the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival, a first-of-its-kind film festival that endeavors to educate all about the importance of Quakers of Color who for too long have remained within the margins of the Society of Friends and the wider world. From 12 February 2022, during Black History Month, until Paul Robeson’s birthday on 9 April 2022 we will screen a film centered on a Quaker of Color with an introduction from a guest expert and a follow up discussion facilitated by BQP Director Dr. Harold D. (Hal) Weaver. Screenings will take place every other Saturday on Zoom at 1pm ET.  

For more information and a registration link:

https://www.theblackquakerproject.org/black-quaker-lives-matter-film-festival