Liberated Lens presents: Black Film Series: Nightjohn + author of "Queen Sugar"

Liberated Lens will host a free film series commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the first Africans brought to present day America. The series will feature an event every third Sunday of the month starting February, for Black History Month, and ending in August, which marks the quadricentennial.

For the first event of the series we will show "Nightjohn" and have a discussion with Natalie Baszile, author of a novel, "Queen Sugar".

NIGHTJOHN:
Sarny, a 12-year-old slave girl in the South, faces a relatively hopeless life. Her chief duties at the plantation of Clel Waller are serving at table, spitting tobacco juice on roses to prevent bugs, and secretly conveying intimate messages between Waller's wife, Callie, and Dr. Chamberlaine. Then Nightjohn, a former runaway slave arrives. In exchange for a pinch of tobacco, Nightjohn secretly begins to teach Sarny to read and write, a crime punishable by death. "Words," he says, "are freedom.

"Queen Sugar"
Queen Sugar is a novel written by Natalie Baszile, her first published novel. It is a mother-daughter story of reinvention. It tells the story about a woman, who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana. The novel was adapted as a drama television series on Oprah's network, directed by Ava DuVernay ("Selma", "13th")