A Mother Apart Film Screening and Workshop

The FHI Black Feminist Working Group presents a screening of the creative documentary A Mother Apart (2024), followed by a hands-on workshop wherein participants will get the opportunity to respond to the film using the written and visual arts. This program will be led by Jazmin Maço, Duke AAHVS PhD and co-organizer of the FHI Black Feminist Working Group. All attendees must reserve a ticket in order to take part in this program. Tickets are free for this event, and will be dispersed on a first-come, first-served basis. To reserve a ticket please sign up through this link

A Mother Apart, directed by Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker Laurie Townshend, is a visual epic that follows Jamaican-American poet and activist Staceyann Chin on a global journey of reckoning wherein she reclaims the power to heal herself from generational wounds of abandonment while forging a brighter future for herself and her daughter. Visit AMotherApartFilm.com to view the documentary's full synopsis and a director's statement.

The film screening and workshop are both open to the public. Workshop participants that are students currently enrolled in Caribbean studies courses or community members who identify as Caribbean will also have the option to contribute their responses to a zine about the film. This zine will be featured in the instructor's emergent public arts database on Caribbean media arts.

While this program is free, we will have art prints for sale to benefit those affected by Hurricane Melissa. All proceeds will be directed to queer and trans organizations operating on the ground in Jamaica such as TransWave JA, Solidarity Yaad JA, Cari-Trans Support Group JA, Queertego, We Change JA, Equality for All Foundation JA, and Kindred on the Rock Farm.

This program will be hosted in the Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall (C105). Food and drinks will be provided.

This program is sponsored by the Franklin Humanities Institute and presented in collaboration with the Fall 2025 Visualizing the Caribbean and Caribbean Image Studies courses taught by Dr. Michaeline Crichlow. The FHI Black Feminist Working Group is co-organized by Ruki PV (Duke Literature PhD) and Jazmin Maço (Duke AAHVS PhD).