Film

Saturday 15th October 2022

Movie Screening and Discussion: "Talking Black in America"

Time: 6:20 PM to 7:20 PM.
Venue: FCA

The discussion will be moderated by the Associate producer (Africa) of the movie, Noble Nazzah.

TALKING BLACK in AMERICA follows the unique circumstances of the descendants of American slaves and their incredible impact on American life and language. Speech varieties from the African American community reflect the imprint of African language systems, the influences of regional British and Southern American dialects, and the creativity and resilience of people living through oppression, segregation and the fight for equality. Filmed across the United States, TALKING BLACK in AMERICA is a startling revelation of language as legacy, identity and triumph over adversity.

TALKING BLACK in AMERICA: ROOTS is a sequel that dives deeper into the origins of African American English and speech forms. In this film, linguists, poets, musicologists, historians, academics, artisans, and musicians from mainly from West Africa (Ghana), the United States, and the Caribbean discuss this trans-continental linguistic influences on African American English and the legacies of slavery. The linguistic creativity of slaves suddenly forced to adopt a foreign language, involved a fusion of their various mother tongues (African languages) and the oppressor’s language (English).