AFTERMATH: The Consortium of Afro Latino Communities Fall 2013 (Part I)

Part I of the Fall Edition of The Consortium of Afro Latino Communities was held last night, September 27th.  I was able to get there about 45 minutes early, helping to set up our display table, and putting up a few flyers outside of the room where we were holding the event.  I was lucky enough that one of my close comrades from Richmond was able to make his way to Baltimore for the event.

I am happy to say that I am pleasantly please with the turnout for the event.  Other than dealing with some technical difficulties regarding the projection system, the Film Screening went quite well!  We were able to screen the following films:

AfroLatinos: The Untaught Story (trailer)
La Toma (documentary short; subtitled) [Colombia]
Sons of Benkos (documentary; subtitled) [Colombia]
The Hands of God (documentary; subtitled) [Peru]
When The Spirits Dance Mambo (feature-length documentary; subtitled)  [Cuba]**
 **unscreened/technical difficulties**

We had a pretty nice turnout; about 30 people in total.  We had a short Q&A session after the screening of each film.  The audience REALLY were impressed with the films, and seeing the connection between Afro Latinos, and their brothers throughout the diaspora, especially here in the United States.  Many were shocked to see and hear the information provided in these films.  I think that the films that had the most profound impact on the audience were "La Toma", and "The Hands of God".

I was happy with the turnout, considering that people came in waves.  I was a little disappointed that certain people who had assured me that they were going to come through, didn't show up.  Considering that the event was held on a Friday night, starting at 6pm, I'm kinda giving these people some leeway.  Of course, you have A LOT of people out in these parts that like to talk, but never come out and support any events that go on. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much of a Latino  presence audience-wise, considering that we promoted our event to the Latino community via street teaming, and emailing various Latino media sources in the city.  Hopefully it was a time management issue, and they'll be present for Part II in the next two weeks.  But I digress....

Looking forward to Part II on October 12th.  That will be our Panel Discussion & Book Signing event.  Hope to see you all there!!!