Imani Dennison on Black Culture, Storytelling, and The People Could Fly

Welcome to the Truth in His Heart, your go to source for conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee, and I am thrilled to have you with us today. My next guest is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and award winning filmmaker whose work explores the histories of black culture in the South and the African diaspora through the lenses of folklore, fantasy, and hidden histories. Please welcome Imani Dennison. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Rob. It's a pleasure to be on the podcast. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for for coming on. It's, like, you know, truly welcome, you know, sort of, like, opportunity and, you know, filmmakers. That's one thing. You know, I like talking to filmmakers. It's like, there's like a list.

It's like, you know, I like talking to everyone I, you know, get the privilege to talk to. It's highly curated, right? But when I'm talking to photographers, when I'm talking to filmmakers, and when I'm talking to chefs, It's just like a different energy that comes over. I'm like, go on. Because you guys are living the lives

that I could have lived. Oh, no. I mean, honestly, I think your platform, also learning a new language of code and also just hosting, being in conversation with us is a is a great pleasure. Honestly, a honor. So, no, thank you for for having me.

I'm excited to chat with you.

Most most most appreciated. So before we go into, like, the main main questions, I wanna invite and encourage you to to introduce yourself in your own words. You know, we we get these. I I came up with this question a little while ago, and I keep tweaking it. Right?

Mhmm. You saw American fiction, I'm assuming.

I did see American fiction.

And there's this piece in there about that I took from, like, categorization. And she's like, oh, you're this, you're that, and I've been deemed as the black podcast that does this, this, and this. I was like, I don't think I would have signed off on that, and I think it's more important to hear it from, you know, our own words. That is a piece of it for me, but it's not the only piece. So could you introduce yourself and briefly tell us about your work?

It's a little bit of a little bit of a taste.

Yeah. For sure. My name is Emani Dennison. I am a multidisciplinary artist, primarily working in the mediums of photography, film, programming. I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky or Louisville, Kentucky.

If you know, you know. I'm currently based between both Louisville and Brooklyn, New York, Flatbush to be exact. I am also working, you know, as a filmmaker in the modality of documentary. I love documentary filmmaking. I love doc.

Also my photo base works are also really rooted in, documentary practices. I love street photography. I love working with people. I love portraiture. I love really just exploring blackness in, you know, the vast beauty of the diaspora.

I've traveled throughout the continent of Africa, you know, collaborating and building and documenting histories and reimagining and, like, exploring with my own imagination. And, yeah, I'm doing a lot of that work here too on the ground. And, that yeah. That's that's my practice. That's me.

Thank you. It's, it's it's good to hear hear those details, what have you, and it's already given me an extra rapid fire question because, like, you'll you'll see me. I'm I'm, like, typing. I'm looking now. So I got something.

It's like, yeah. So I'm from it's it's another podcast I did for a really long time, and sometimes, like, I fumble over my words. And we're talking about a thing, and we're talking about a story that happened in Kentucky. And I was like, in Kentuckus, and my man was like, for about 20 years, he was, like, now we go to Kentuckus. I was, like

Oh, Kentuckus.

I had to hold off on it because he said, I was, like, oh.

Oh, no. I don't know what. We don't know her.

So going back a bit, you know, could you, you know, share how some of those maybe early experiences with with art, with with filmmaking, and growing up in in Louisville, shape your creative voice? And when did you realize that filmmaking was gonna be it for you, was gonna be one of the the interest for you?

Yeah. So in high school, my dad, Shaka Lafayette, he bought me randomly a old analog Minolta film camera. I was visiting him in DC, and he had randomly had this Minolta camera. So my dad moved between, like, DC and Philadelphia where he spent most of his time in Philly. So I kind of, like, partly grew up in Philly, Just, you know, mostly some recent holidays.

So, it was a trip that I was coming to visit him, and he asked me what I think about photography. And he had had a a no man also camera in the back seat that he reached over and and gifted me. Now I hadn't I had no idea what photography was. You know? This was also high school for me, so we're talking digital cameras or, you know, household things that are really small things that you kinda just, like, snap.

You know, mostly family events and things with in my world. So for him to pull out a old analog film camera was definitely a new thing for me. In my world, it actually really opened my world up. I then began learning about photographers like Gordon Parks, and I joined the photography club in high school. And really just start thinking about the world and images.

And like every you know? Yeah. It's like, I guess, like, yeah, 17, 18 starting to really develop a genuine interest, and this was images. And, like, I started even thinking about black people differently. I'm starting to photograph my family and, yeah, see the value in in albums and moments.

Just photography really shifted my perspective in that way. Yeah. And, you know, shortly after joining that photography club in high school, I'd gotten admitted to Howard University. And it was there where I truly, you know, began to blossom. And my love for photography and images also, like, just continue to blossom.

My freshman year, I ended up making a documentary, you know, with this, like, rebel canon rebel, like, t two I kit that my, like, folks had gotten me, you know, that Christmas that Christmas, but my freshman year at Howard, I had a class. I had like a diasporic, like, you know, like some sort of like, diasporic class in high school taught taught by this professor named doctor Krista Johnson. She who also, you know, really changed my life in a way of just affirming, my storytelling from from from early. So, yeah, I had this class that she was teaching, and, instead of me writing, like, a 15 page paper, she challenged me to actually make a documentary for, like, the final grade. And I was the only one presented with this option, which was actually pretty amazing.

So I went out to the streets of DC, and I'm like you know, as a freshman, I was a little bit of an introvert. You know, I really kinda used the camera to start conversations, but really it was like a safety thing for me. It was like if I'm carrying around the camera, you know, this is like, I'm safe. I'm good. Like yeah.

So I was, like, being challenged to open up to in another way where I'm rolling around DC with this, like, camera and and my freshman roommate at the time, and we're asking questions, to look to, like, you know, DC natives about, actually, it was like HIV and AIDS that was the class. And so we're asking people about, like, the epidemic and yeah. So, essentially, that project ended up being my first, like, short documentary. I I got a a plus on it. The class clapped when I presented it.

I I edited it on my my HP computer. I can't even remember the name of that software. But, but yeah. So essentially, that was that was the the intro. That was the intro to it.

So it's like also growing up in Louisville having, you know, in terms of aesthetics, I think, like, there's nothing like a Kentucky sky.

Mhmm.

There's nothing there's nothing like growing up in a big family where you're where you're used to aunties and cousins running around and wrestling, and there's a real lived experience that's, like, super embodied coming from a big family in the south, like, who gather, who love each other, who who function healthily, who have a good time. And I do think that also, you know, having parents who live apart, all these things really do play and have played a huge part into my interest and my eye and, yeah, my aesthetics. You know? My my father who, you know, I was coming going back and forth from to Philly to to visit his mother. My grandma, is a Mississippi woman.

So that means my my father is a a Mississippi man. Right? He's a southerner too, although he was born in Albany. So, you know, these just these little details are really big details, you know, that do inform not only who you are, but what things you see. Like, what what catches your gaze.

It all informs your gaze. So I'd say, yeah, my my my background does absolutely inform my gaze even today.

Thank you. That's that's really great. It's really thoughtful and, you know, makes me think of just when I go to different cities, I'm looking for I'm I'm Baltimore through and through even though people say you don't like it. And, when when I go to a different city, I'm looking for that familiarity from my side upbringing. Like, what is it about this city that has me you know, if, let's say, if it's a Philly, I'm I'm seeing some Baltimore.

And if it's New Orleans, which that's like, New Orleans is like my side piece. That's it it's horrible. Like, I love New Orleans.

Oh, wow.

But I look at it I look at it in that way of, like, oh, I can see myself here. I can see myself being here and these are the reasons, and it's really pulled out. But I consider myself and my experience is very much a mid Atlantic guy, but it's something about that sort of southern sensibility that's that's there that clicks for whatever reason. And as you mentioned, you know, like, I think about my some of some of my my family here, we're all from here, except for my grandmother. She's like North Carolina or she was from North Carolina, and those sensibilities are there.

I'm like, oh, yeah. We kinda country in that part.

Yeah. I did.

That makes sense. And it's it's just there and then like my mom's people from Southern Maryland, I was like, oh, you got country too? And I was like, it's not the south, but it's like, you got kinda country. It's like, alright, cool. We got it.

And I just see some of these things that are norms for me that I think everyone up here does it. It's like the further you go up, that is a detachment and almost sort of it's unintentional and it's not with malice, but it's it's just people aren't connected in that way. I think the further you go up.

No. Yeah. No. Absolutely. I I I would have to agree with that, actually.

I mean, I've been in New York, like, 9 years now, and I won't say it's disconnected, but it's just definitely not the same as the South. Yeah. It's definitely not the same as the South. I mean, the there's definitely love here. And I mean, a place like New York and Philly, there's it's well, I will say more New York is definitely a romantic city, and there's a lot of oh, yeah.

A lot of love just in the streets and in the air, but the south, yeah, it's just a different thing.

Yeah. It's it's it's almost like, it's almost like passing a certain test of, like, you really from here? Cool. You in. Versus, does your comment there, like and and I'll share this from Ute to the next question.

I remember the first time I went to New Orleans, I was there by myself. I was going up in, like, a crappy breakup, and this was, like, sort of money I had left over. Instead of visiting the girl I was dating. I was like, ask, can I put it in New Orleans? Because because Hannibal Buress said a joke about it.

That's the only reason I went. And I remember going to, like, one of these wild markets, like, I don't know, is it Piggly Wiggly or something? They have these names. Right? And

Oh, yeah.

I'm sitting there just trying to, like, get my bearings of where I'm gonna go, and it's this random dude that popped up wearing, like, the whole chef fit. And I was like, what's up with my man? And he sits down next to me, and we have a 45 minute conversation. You thought me and him were, like, boys. And he told me about his family and all of that.

I was like Yeah. Situation wouldn't happen further up. Yeah. I'm I'm a shy extrovert, I guess. I was like, I don't know you, bro.

But we had a really cool conversation. I remember that trip, that's, like, 10 years ago, more than any other experience that I've had. There's been some cool ones, but I remember them very vividly because of that sort of familiarity. He's a baseball. And I was like, I don't know you, bro.

I appreciate the sentiment. I appreciate that sort of hospitality, I guess.

Oh, totally. Yeah. There's a lot of a lot of hospitality, a lot of love, a lot of loving people, and it's great.

So let's let's talk a bit about process. And, you know, as you you you touched on, I saw some of those those interconnected things that are there, having the eye, having the background, having the interest. So, let's talk about where those, like, you know, curation, filmmaking, and photography, like, where they sort of complement each other within the, you know, your creative process?

Oh, absolutely. Funny enough, you know, in, like, 2018, I think yeah. About 2018, I sat with myself and I asked, okay, Imani, You you love you love film. You love you love, you know, gathering people. You love music.

You know? I come from a very musical family. So, again, talking about those early years. And I'm thinking, okay. How can what ways can I bring my interest together?

And I came up with this I came up with this name that is not something I invented, of course, called black science fiction. Thinking about what are these things that combine my interests, like, what what are they? And I and I this this phrase, black science fiction, this genre, black science fiction really sat with me. And I'm like, you know what? Maybe I can gather maybe I can gather people and program and curate under the name black science fiction.

So I did. And I began curating music shows and, hosting film screenings, through black science fiction. I developed this Afro Cinephile club where I ran out, like, this old well, this, like, you this a a space that actually used to be a funeral home turned, indie theater in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. And I program cinema series through their through the actual cinephile club that I created, via black science fiction. So this is a vehicle that I've used to combine a lot of my interests.

This black science fiction, you know, is definitely a brainchild that, is is much a a indie art house, I like to say, where I'm given room for artists to experiment, myself included. I mean, selfishly, you know, gathering and and developing the muscle to organize, which is in my bloodline, you know, to do, organize and and present art and build community and, you know, and practice, really practice. It's all a practice, part of my practice. So that that is one that is definitely one way that I've been preserving and growing and developing through black science fiction.

Thank you. That's that's a great act like, look. We had to have that post conversation. I feel like I'm gonna have to get some mentorship. You know?

You come Yeah. Bring bring together bringing together those interests. You know, it's almost like you you can't go wrong. It's it's it's very simple there, I think. It's like you bring together the things that you're you're interested in.

I think it almost in a ham fisted way segues to this this next question I have. Thinking through, like, creativity, it isn't just about making what you know. Often, it's in making what you connect with deeply on an emotional level. And, you know, I've seen and read that your work, you know, as a focus on black culture, some folklore in there, you know, hidden histories and even, you know, going back and talking a bit about sort of what's often in plain sight of it when your time at Howard. Right?

So talk a bit about like the, you know, why do these themes resonate with you personally and what draws you to this type of story versus something that might be more, yes, someone's done that, but I'm a put my own stamp on it.

Oh, absolutely. Thank you for this question. So I grew up well, one, my name's Imani. My dad's name is Shaka. You know?

I grew up, you know, I would say, especially my paternal side, are 100% pan Africanist. I grew up with a bunch of black children's books that were really rooted in fantasy. So I think for me, I mean, even beyond, like, my own creativity for the first 9 years of my life. I was an only child before my little brother came. I was an only child, so I got really good at playing, you know, alone in a lot of ways.

I was I was more a quiet child. I did grow up with cousins and all of that. But, I really loved, like, science and, like, I collected things like rats. I was very, yeah. I'm not sure.

I I don't know what kind of child you'd call this. My grandma always talks about about it, how interesting it all was. But, yeah, I really just had, like, genuine interest from Young

Sure.

Where things like this really interested me, like, that might not interest the average child. But, I mean, this really led to even me storytelling and, like, I would draw a lot and, like, create stories from, like, a really young age and, not only narrate them, but I, you know, just like use material. I was like, you can use in, like, material, like toilet paper and fabrics and putting things into books and gluing. So I was always really hands on. And, again, grew up with folklore books, you know, Virginia Hamilton's, The People Could Fly, then, you know, just and was a a huge staple, but just a range of of fantasy books.

And I think that's really manifested itself in my adult life in really beautiful ways. Also, again, on my paternal side, I I grew up with a grandma who told a lot of stories to me and my cousins. Like, also just a singing woman, a very musical woman, who always had a story in her song that that's also influenced me greatly. So I think now, you know, as an adult, as someone who is very interested in, like, in love with storytelling. I always go back to my roots into into not only just what I know, but, like, what I thought I knew, and then, like, what I'm rediscovering all the time.

Like, you know, as we grow every year, as we change every year, our understandings of things change. You know? And I'm always reaching back. I'm always reaching back to roots to to reprocess things, rethink about things, and just find out and and hold on to more more so, like, hold on to who I am and who my people are, who I come from, and really kind of just remembering, yeah, remembering how things feel. Like, you know, I've been again in in the north now for poof, you know, essentially from 18 years old onward, and I'm 32 now.

So, you know, I, you know, spent 4 years in DC and then, I mean, almost 10 years in New York and done a lot of traveling elsewhere, you know, essentially outside of that too. And there's still no place like Louisville, Kentucky. And there's still nothing like those children children's books that I still have under my childhood bed or, like, my bed at home in my mom's house. And, like, when I'm coming now to, like when I'm coming to the table now as an adult, as a young filmmaker, as a mid career filmmaker who has something to say, and I wanna tell a story about a community in Louisville, Kentucky. Well, now I'm gonna pull from Virginia Hamilton because, you know, I'm thinking about, well, what do I wanna say about Louisville, Kentucky?

And I and I'm really referencing a film that I a short film I just made, called The People Could Fly about, essentially about the history of roller skate culture in Louisville, but more so looking at roller rinks, as sanctuaries and how they emerged throughout the years in Louisville as safe spaces, as really deep community spaces. So, of course, when I'm approaching this work, I'm I'm going under the bed, and I'm I'm remembering, okay, what parts of my childhood can I bring with me? And, you know, what elements of a space, maybe as simple as a rink to most, could I make magical? Because it's already a magical thing. And I'm like, okay.

Well, the people could fly. Like, the people in here are flying. I mean, I grew up roller skating as did my mother. And, you know, if I'm, like, approaching new work, I'm thinking, how can I bring ancestors into this work? You know?

Yeah. How can I bring childhood into this work? Like, so yeah. So I'm I'm always going inward in that way and I'm reapproaching things with with that lens and that gaze. It's just really important to me, and it's it's what's most natural.

So, you know, you know, outside of that too, just even when I'm making photographs making photographs, when I'm making images, or what catches my eye might be how the sun is hitting a building. No matter where I am in the world, be it Johannesburg or Flatbush, but maybe something reminded me of what a sunset feels like, in the grass in Kentucky or, maybe I'm, like, walking around Prospect Park, but I'm really thinking about, like, I'm really thinking about home and how it feels to be in the back seat laughing with your cousins. And so I'm always kinda just, like, taking, like, childhood things or things that feel most like home into the work because it's the most authentic part of myself, I think.

Thank you. You're making my job easier. We're we're tapping into we're poking that sort of what the the next few questions are about. So so thank you for revisiting that, and you you you got me not to say my goofy I had a pun I was gonna throw in there, but I'm not going to. I'm not going to.

It's something about it's something about you having denizens, and, you know, it's just like having your people, you know, your name, and yeah. See? It fell flat. See?

Yeah. He's silly.

But no. No. That it's it's great when you you're able to and there's a few comments I wanna make. You're able to, you know and I think you're right. The the authenticity piece is so so important.

It's before we get sort of beaten down with rejection or whatever the thing might be. You're just doing whatever the thing is that you do, and hearing about, like, sort of how maybe you got your first camera or things along those lines, it reminds me of how I stumbled into recording audio was, you know, I was trying to impress a girl. I did a rap song in character as Babble. Woah. Wow.

And I did it with all of these DJ Clue ish adlibs. Wow. And I had one of those teachers who was, like, very supportive, and she played it for the class. I am this color. I've not gotten any darker.

I was red. I was like, this is embarrassing. But she thought it was cute, and she was like, oh, what's going on, Murda Mac? And that's what she was calling. I was like, I'll take it.

Oh. You know, it's m u r d a, you know. And,

Murda Mac.

So we had hearing about that, my parents are like, we need to get you a small recorder because I got one of those like old dubbing machines, and I recorded on an old dubbing machine. I was a tinkerer, right? And my parents got me the little handy recorder, so for a while I would walk around and just click, you know, note to self, and that's probably proto podcasting for me. It's probably, hey, let's get this story. Let's not forget this thing.

Or even with my friends, we would, you know, hang out in the basement during the summer. This one summer that comes to mind, my my dad used to work for the city city city of Baltimore, and it was one year where Sammy Sosa from the Chicago Cubs had a cereal, like, basically knock off frosted flakes, and my dad found a case of them that fell off of a truck, so that's what we ate every day during that summer. So we would sit there loaded with sugar watching wrestling, and I was recording the conversations we were having with stupid teenagers, but that was probably one of my earliest Wow. Dives into what a podcast would be, and that's 24 years ago.

Wow. Yeah. It's it really starts, like, with the family. Like, just like those things that are just regular parts of your makeup that you don't really even see as things until you reflect on them later, and you're like, hold on. Actually, I've been an archivist, like, most of my life or, like,

Right. Right. And I've been recording conversations with people I shouldn't have been for a long time. I've been making an ass out of myself for a long time. No.

But it's it's it's really important to, you know, tap back into when we were younger. There's something there. And, so so moving back into The People Could Fly, you know, highlighting those those gathering spaces, I'm reading that the the time frame is from the sixties to the mid 2000. So why that time frame? What was the significance there?

And sort of secondly, why is it important to preserve, and if you will archive, these these stories?

Yeah. Well, the sixties to the early 2000. So definitely the the early 2000 was because that's when I was that's when I was in the rank. You know, that's when I was in high school, and the ritual of the Friday night, you know, Saturday roller skating was huge. When I was a teenager, it was definitely its own world in a place where it felt like teenagers were safe.

Like, I don't know what's happening now in the world. It's in shambles, but the rink was definitely one of those teenage spots where kids could go and be kids and also, like, you know, be away from their parents, have some sort of freedom and but, like, it was a container to, like, explore, but it was safe. It was it was really special. So I really wanted to highlight that, you know, put my own voice into that into the film in that way. And, you know, as early as the sixties, because, you know, sixties, seventies, eighties, we're talking now, you know, a time of a segregated city, especially in the south.

And I think it's an important fact to include in a film, especially a documentary, especially when we're living in a world now where there's, like, book bans and, like, fake news, I think, like, it's important to, yeah, to talk about, you know, what people had to sacrifice to get to what I experienced in the 2000. So that's why I thought the time period was really important. In the film, we talk about busing and how the first black roller rink well, one of the first black roller rinks, Broadway roller rink, where my mom was a skate guard as a teenager. You know, it it opened up the the same year busing was, you know, put in place in the city. So it was very high racial tensions at this time where a black family, was empowered and created such a beautiful place for families to enjoy themselves, you know, admit amidst this, like, really crucial part of Kentucky history, you know, where like schools are just integrating and people are just learn like, trying to figure out, like, you know, where in the city is safe zones because, again, yeah, it it was, in the segregated south in the sixties is a serious thing.

So, yeah. I wanted to include make sure that there was a range to really, like, talk about what people sacrificed, what family sacrificed, what what black people, you know, encountered. You know? Just give a broad scope of the past and juxtaposed to the present just to see maybe what has changed and what has stayed the same.

That it's thank you. It's it's really good, and I think you're you're right. I was gonna say something about the fashion, like, some of those fits over, you know, those 4 decades. But no. No.

I think it's it's really important to capture, like, what's happening, what the well, what has happened, the sentiment, and your your point around sort of what it was then and then something like where it's at now. And I think sometimes even talking to, you know, folks who were around that time, like, my my dad's 70, and I I remember it was maybe 2019, you know, here in Baltimore when we had the unrest or what some people call riots. And my dad was like, oh, no. None of that stuff's been fixed since 60 68. He's like, I don't know why they're acting like this is new.

I hadn't done that in, you know, 50 years. Wow. I wouldn't have that reference point because I wasn't around then. So being able to have someone who was around for that time and saying pretty much their branding this and, like, you guys, they're just like, no. No.

No. This has been blighted. This is intentional. They don't care about what we have here. So I think it's important to have those stories actually have some semblance of truth versus something that's rebranded of we've always been this sort of city.

Yeah.

This sort of community, and then, you know, we lose something there. We lose that connective tissue and that DNA that's baked into who we are.

Absolutely. I agree.

And so, you know, this last sort of point of this question, what would be the key thing you want folks to take away from from this film when you they check this film out?

You know, I I really just want people to have learned something new about Louisville, Kentucky. I want people to walk away too with a just a better understanding too of the importance of spaces like Robins Roos or spaces like Broadway roller rink. You know, if you if you see the film, you'll understand just what kinds of communities are built, Or what yeah. What kind of communities have been built in a small town like Louisville that people might not talk about or hear about much outside of Kentucky Derby or Muhammad Ali? I really just wanna I want to I want people to be interested and care about the city.

I want people to visit. I want people to pour into the infrastructure of the city. Yeah. I want I want I want Louisville to be a place on on people's lists, and I want folks to watch the film and wanna go skate or, just even just have a better understanding of, again, the importance of these spaces and hopefully, you know, return to their own communities and or in search for places that feel equally as good to them. Yeah.

That that would be that would be the ideal. But, again, just such a privilege actually to be telling any story about my hometown. I think filmmakers don't always get the the pleasure to to do that. So I'm really just thankful at all to just make work about Louisville and, like, a place that I also, like, grew up frequenting as a teenager. It's really it's really special to me.

It's it's special it's it's important, and it feels I would imagine it feels really good to really do it for the home team, do it for the city, and, you know, I carry that on me. I I don't sound like I'm from here, but I carry that when I go, so I'm from Baltimore, man. I'm from East Baltimore. I get real specific. It's like, yo, Baltimore's not that big.

I'm like, I'm from East Baltimore.

Exactly. Yeah. You gotta you gotta say it. You gotta rep. You gotta rep and get real specific sometimes.

And and, you know, and I and I you know, thoughtfully, when I go to these different places, I come with, like, all my best thing, you know, repping where I'm from, but also just like, look, I I do this. I I do this professionally. This is a thing that I'm interested in. And, you know, really almost as an ambassador of, you know, hey, you should check this out. You should you should check out Baltimore from this.

It's all of these great things here. Don't listen to the the other stuff, you know. That's a small part, a small sliver of what the full story is, and it's an invitation, really.

Yep.

So there's one other thing I want to say about, you know, about about the film, right? Yeah. You're in your bag. You know, I see, you know, archival footage, still photos. It's a new material.

So that's like, you know, what was that like? Like really executing sort of multiple facets of your diverse skill set? What was that like? And really with that energy of putting on for your for your city and your hometown.

I mean, it's absolutely a pleasure to to to put on for the hometown, like, to to make work. And you have articles, like, from your local news stations, like, writing things about you and publishing it and having extended extended family members and friends of your family, like, reach out about it. You know, you become a champion, like in that way. And it's truly no feeling like it, especially when you come from a small town or from like an unsaturated space. Like, I'm not from New York City.

I'm not from a a a town, like, even Philadelphia or Chicago or LA, you know, I'm from Kentucky. So I feel like a possibility model for a lot of people, and I think we all need that. Like a possibility model is in, younger cousins. You can look at at this film and say, dang, Mani did this. Like, Moni made this, you know, or even people older than me.

You know, my grandma always calls and reminds me, that she knows she didn't have these opportunities when she was when she was young. So she's just always proud to see the opportunities that I've taken advantage of. And, yeah, it's a it's a it's a beautiful thing. It's it's something I don't take for granted. It feels really good.

Also, even the material that I use for the film, the archival, a lot of it came from archives from historians who are in the real estate community. Like a lot of the archival footage are from like, you know, roller skaters who have been skating for like 50 years and had a bunch of footage essentially in their basement or in their personal collection that they wanted to be in the film and that I wanted to be in the film. So, you know, very collaborative in that way too where it's kinda like, wow. Like, this is your now I'm like, you know, there was a a part of the process where I'm sitting in at Elder's basement and his set office set up, going through all these archives that he's documented for literally the last 50 years. And he just, you know, on his camcorder.

And now he's passing them along to me to say something else, you know, with the with the material. So there's a really deep, deep exchange happening here where, like, I have an idea and concept. I come with material, and then I'm I'm sitting with the elder who also has material. And we infuse these things to say to say one thing about a community or to say multiple things about a community that we've both that we both have different entry points into. So it's super magical for that as well.

And I'm excited for him to actually see the film, although I did show him an early cut, months before it was complete. But I'm excited because we haven't had our first screening in the city yet. So I'm extremely excited. November, I believe it yeah. November 24th is the screening.

And I'm so excited to see everyone's face and just to hear the energy and the audience and just to see people celebrate this document, because the film is a historical document now where, you know, people are now almost immortalized. It's like this happened, you know, like this happened, you know, and like nobody can take it away. We have records. So I think all of it just, yeah, it means so much to me. I'm really like thankful.

That's great. Thank you. And so I think since that's a good spot for us to kind of wrap on the real questions. So I wanna move into these rapid fire questions that I got for you. You can't escape.

Everyone's got

Oh, man. Okay. All good.

As I tell folks all the time, you don't wanna overthink these. Whatever is the first thing that comes to your mind, it's like, look. I said what I said. This is this is

Fine. Fine.

So, you know, with the the name of films and references to to books and stories. So if you could fly, what would be the first place you'd fly to?

Oh, the first place I'd fly to would be Johannesburg, South Africa.

That's great to answer. Could you name one song that's in your current music rotation? I was listening. Your music people.

Oh, and my current music rotation. It's funny because, on my way I'm I'm sitting in Harlem right now and, oops, sorry. And and, you know, one thing, like, I've been creating a gospel playlist. Not that I'm like a I'm not really like that religious or anything, but, there's a leak in this old building is a a song that I actually by Lashawn, pace. Mhmm.

Is like a song that I I this definitely in my rotation right now, which yeah, again, like, I'm a big R and B jazz, like, I love the early 2000 cuts. But this just happened to be, like, a bit in rotation. So yeah.

It's good. This is the last one I got for you because you kinda already answered this other one. I was just like, I already got the answer. I was just like, wait. What?

If let's see. If this film is alright. That's the way I wrote it. If this film is on regardless of how long it's been on, what are you watching? Are you watching it?

Like, you know, let's say it's a movie that you're a big fan of and it's like alright. This is halfway through. I might as well finish it. What's that movie for you?

Oh, there's a few, but I'm gonna say if there's a movie so you're saying there's a movie. It's on and I don't wanna finish it for real, and I'm just powering through it, or

I want that. Finish it. You're like, oh, I'm I'm hooked. It's like, oh, there's, like, 5 minutes left. I gotta finish this.

Oh, it just started great. I can watch this whole thing now.

Oh, I'm gonna say Rush Hour 2.

That was unexpected. Shout out to you. That's a good pull. I like that.

I like that. Full of full of tricks.

I was I was looking for a comedy. I was like, okay. It's gonna be a comedy that pops in. You know, you could tell your people.

Yeah. Rush definitely, I'm a I'm a I love a rush. I I I just need to actually revisit that, but anytime it's on, I'm like, oh, we here. Chilling.

That's good. That's good. And and that's kinda it. You got off the rapid fire, off the hot seat as it were. So There's 2 things I wanna do as we close out here.

1, I wanna thank you for spending some time with me, some of your afternoon with me. This has been a treat. And, 2, I wanna invite and encourage you in these final moments to share with the listeners all of the details, the social media, you know, when the film is gonna be, all of that stuff. The floor is yours.

Okay. Thank you again for having me. It was such a pleasure and an honor. The film is out and about. The People Could Fly is, doing a festival run right now.

It will be playing at the Speed, Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, November 24th, if you're local. But also will be playing the New Orleans Film Festival, Hot Springs Film Festival, and Doc NYC this fall. Still pending other festivals, but please catch it there. Also social media things, Imani Nikaya is my Instagram. That's Imani Nikaya.

Nikaya is n I k y a h. Imani, I m a n I. That's me. That's my social media. And, yeah, I think that's about it.

There you have it, folks. I wanna again thank Imani Denizen for coming on to the podcast and sharing a bit of her journey with us. And for Imani, I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community And then around your neck of the woods, you've just got to look for it.