Given our recent mention of the new Bling book by Ossé and Tolliver, we wouldn't want to leave the impression that we've gone all materialist on you. The darker side of the hip-hop jewelry obsession is chronicled in Kareem Edouard's Bling: Consequences and Repercussions, one of three films scheduled to be screened as part of the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Kareem's film investigates Africa's illegal diamond trade and the carnage that often flows from it. Other films in this portion of the festival include Meredith Danluck's Roots, an experimental video featuring The Roots' Questlove and Black Thought at the nexus of hip-hop and high art; and Femke Wolting's Sneakers, chronicling the history of the ubiquitous street footwear.
The Mead Festival is the U.S.'s longest-running film festival and is currently celebrating its 30th year. In a bid to boost the festival's diversity and youth cred, organizers tapped electrocultures expert and shameless afrogeek Erika Dalya Muhammad of the Mount Vernon Hip-Hop Arts Center to curate the special hip-hop related program. Erika tells us the program is designed to give folks new perspectives on hip-hop, including an awareness of what it means to consume it. The films will screen on November 10.
The program also includes a Q&A session also at the American Museum of Natural History on November 10 with Meredith Danluck and Doreen Remen of the Art Production Fund. The films will screen again on December 1 at the Westchester Arts Council. Again, Danluck, Remen, and Erika will be in attendance, this time with filmmaker Art Jones.
