For years, Sufia Giza Amenwahsu has sought to educate and engage Columbians through art.
Since 2009, sandwiched between the start of Black History Month and Bob Marley’s Feb. 6 birthday, Amenwahsu has presented the Reel Black Pix Global Afrikan Film Series.
Reel Black Pix, which began as an intimate way to showcase diversity to the surrounding community, has in its fourth year grown into a weekend of film screenings, discussion panels, workshops and activities designed to encourage informed conversation about cultural acceptance.
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The multiday festival begins at 6 tonight with a filmmaker forum at Tapps Art Center and runs through Sunday.
“We want to create an event for Columbia where everyone knows that all are welcome,” she said. “Most ethnic festivals are so specific, but we want to broaden our audience by providing more mainstream programming and more opportunities for people to come together.”
Amenwahsu created HeTePu Productions, an arts and culture non-profit, in 1994 and Reel Black Pix is an extension of the organization.
This year, Reel Black Pix has added a VIP dinner and a young filmmakers’ competition.
“We’ve just grown exponentially in terms of our programming and our events, especially trying to do more arts education programming,” Amenwahsu said.
That includes showing more foreign films for both children and adults in order to encourage reading English subtitles.
For its Hip-Hop Summit on Saturday, Reel Black Pix is bringing in an artist who was part of the foundation of hip-hop. Professor Griff, a rapper and member of the group Public Enemy, is a sentinel for old school rap.
Amenwahsu said she hopes that Griff’s standing as a respected elder in the hip-hop world will create an intergenerational dialogue, and give the youths in attendance a real context for the music they’re listening to.
Amenwahsu said part of her inspiration for Reel Black Pix is being able to provide others opportunities to learn and be diverse.
She herself grew up with a mix of different cultures. Originally from Riverside, Calif., Amenwahsu learned to speak Spanish from a neighbor who would teach her a new word every day. At age 8, she learned Geechee from her grandmother and two cousins who came to live with her family for a year. Amenwahsu moved to South Carolina in 2005.
“I knew how to make tortillas just as well as I knew how to make black-eyed peas and fried chicken,” she said. “I grew up sharing a culture, and I’ve missed that here in South Carolina.
“Exposure is everything, if you never see anything different, you never know anything different.”
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