Local Artist Series to Feature Dance Film on Race Relations in America

By Bethany Bump

ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 31, 2023) — The University at Albany Performing Arts Center will present a free screening next week of a love letter to Brian, Lesley, and Michelle, a dance film by local artist Hettie Barnhill exploring race relations in America.

The presentation has been described by Barnhill as “a film, a play, an experience, a concert dance, a work of art, a self-reflection, a protest” that “ideally leaves viewers looking inward, seeking justice from within.” The interactive and experimental work explores topics such as white fragility, diversity and inclusion, anti-Blackness, anti-queerness and racial fear, and compels viewers to see themselves within the stories of those who are brutalized, objectified and minimized in America.

“It is the result of human beings coming together, diverse of age, sexuality, race and gender, talking with their bodies, minds and souls, about Black lives,” Barnhill said. “It’s meant to be the beginning of a discussion.”

The film will be screened on Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at PAC on the Uptown Campus, and will include an audience discussion with the director afterward. Admission is free and no reservations or tickets are required.

Completed in April 2021, the film has been an official selection in the Montreal International Black Film Festival, Colorado International Activism Film Festival, Silicon Valley International Film Festival, Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival and London International Monthly Film Festival. It was also a part of the Rochester Fringe Festival.

Barnhill is currently a lecturer in the dance department at Skidmore College.

A writer, director, Broadway actress and choreographer, Barnhill has performed nationally and internationally and on Broadway in Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark, and was part of the original cast in the Tony Award-winning FELA! and Tony Award-nominated Leap of Faith. She has been nominated for a 2017 New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Choreography.

She is also the founder of Create A Space NOW, an interactive social platform that uses performing arts and multimedia to foster discussion around the Black Lives Matter movement and race relations in America.

The upcoming screening is part of a series of events presented by PAC designed to shine a light on local artists. The next event will feature actors Bianca Stinney and Ben Katigiri in the experimental play White Rabbit, Red Rabbit on March 26-27.