Join us on YouTube to watch the episode, followed by a conversation with the teens, collaborating artists, home movie donors and SSHMP about this unique creative collaboration.

Rebel Betty is an AfroIndigenous Puerto Rican poet, multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker based in Chicago. Rebel is using a multidisciplinary approach to depict the magic and movement of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities and to trace back ancestral forms of resistance and culture through storytelling and archiving moments in history. Her visual art, organizing and cultural work center on the preservation of culture in Black and Brown communities through facilitated dialogue, poetry, music, education and the arts. Rebel’s visual art makes use of historical archives and contemporary photography to create colorful and impactful multimedia collages and videos that speak truth to power and document the power and beauty of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.

This episode of Spinning Home Movies features home movies from the Ellis McClelland, Dr. George Reed Jr., Dr. Helen Nash, Leroy Roberson, Charles Merrifield, Philip Maxwell Sr, Jay Kavanaugh, Roy Herbert Branch, David D. and Margaret T. Pitts, Frederick Atkins, Jean Patton, Holland Family, Gustina Steele, Lynette Frazier, Roberts Family, and Buford Family Collections.

The Teen Arts Council (TAC) in partnership with After School Matters, is an arts leadership assistantship that collaborates with the Arts + Public Life initiative to develop creative skills, leadership experience, and develop opportunities for their peers to engage with the arts.

Spinning Home Movies is produced and presented by Arts + Public Life (APL) and South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP), with support from the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC). Each episode features a 20-30 minute set of 8mm, Super 8mm or 16mm vintage home movie footage shot by South Side residents from the 1920s to 1980s, curated and soundtracked by Chicago DJs, musicians and performing artists. The screening of the curated collections are followed by a live discussion, “The Rewind,” where the Spinning Home Movies production team, guest artists and film donors dig deeper into the episode’s themes, discuss the curatorial and creative process, share the back story behind the film clips, and reflect on the unique experience of engaging South Side artists with this local film archive.

SSHMP was founded in 2005 by Arts + Public Life director Jacqueline Stewart, and works to ensure that the diverse experiences and perspectives of South Siders will be available for study and appreciation by larger audiences and future generations through the collection, preservation, digitization, research and screening of home movies generously donated to the archive. Learn more about the South Side Home Movie Project and explore the digital archives at sshmp.uchicago.edu/