Film Screening and Conversation: Gordon Parks’ Leadbelly (1976)
Register here: $10 general, $8 seniors + students, free for members
Join us for a special screening of Leadbelly (1976), photographer and director Gordon Parks’ powerful semi-biographical film about the life and music of Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, the legendary blues musician, songwriter, and cultural icon.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Prof. Sheila Curran Bernard, author of Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies (2024). An Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker with credits on nearly 50 hours of programming, mostly in prime time on PBS (including Slavery by Another Name and Eyes on the Prize), she is the Glen Trotiner Professor of Visual Storytelling in the Department of History at the University at Albany, SUNY, and director of its Graduate Program in Public History.
She will share her thoughts on the film and her book’s insights into Lead Belly’s complex story, while highlighting the local connections of this giant of American music whose songs and spirit continue to shape our music today.
This screening is in conjunction with Westport Public Art Collections—Art, Jazz + the Blues on view through April 26.
Prof. Sheila Curran Bernard + her book Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly’s Truths from Jim Crow’s Lies (2024).
