Chicago Style
As a part of Chicago Style, Illinois Humanities, South Side Home Movie Project and Arts + Public Life are pleased to present Momentum, a new film curated and scored by Ayana Contreras.
This film is not only a celebration of Black fashion in motion - it’s a celebration of Black Life. Through the lens of the home movie, we see how Black families integrated fashion into their everyday lives. Fashion happens everywhere, and we can witness how the camera can turn any moment into a fashion show!
Ayana spent months exploring the SSHMP collections and carefully selecting moments that showcased the vibrant colors and textures of Chicago style. Momentum samples from eight unique home movie collections, following the trends of Black fashion as it moves on and off the runway, from decade to decade and from frame to frame. And layered in, Ayana’s original mix connects the silent images to the sounds of their time, inviting us all to join the procession.
Special thanks to South Side Home Movie Project’s long time producer, Avery LaFlamme, for collaborating with Ayana to create the film and soundtrack.
About the Artist
Ayana Contreras
Ayana Contreras is a cultural historian, memory worker, radio DJ, and archivist. An avid collector with over 9000 vintage vinyl records, for over a decade she hosted the Reclaimed Soul program on Vocalo Radio (and later, on WBEZ) in Chicago. She currently hosts Soulful Strut on KUVO Jazz in Denver, Colorado, where she serves as Assistant General Manager over Radio at Rocky Mountain PBS. She is also a columnist for DownBeat magazine and her writings have been published in The New York Times, Chicago Review, Oxford American, and Bandcamp Daily among other publications. She is a regular contributor to the NPR Music New Music Friday Podcast, and her book on Post-Civil Rights Era cultural history, titled Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago, was published in December 2021 through the University of Illinois Press.
