Screening & Conversation: Cabin in the Sky and Black Women’s Stardom

Join us for an evening screening of the 1943 musical Cabin in the Sky at Poster House, followed by a conversation on Black women in Hollywood presented in connection with the current exhibition Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen. Film professor Racquel Gates and curator Es-pranza Humphrey will discuss the bold performances of Ethel Waters and Lena Horne in the movie and talk about the casting decisions and character profiles that shaped the wider representation of Black women in race films throughout the 1940s. They will also explore how the kind of promotional posters shown in the exhibition introduced Black performers in accordance with the artistic and cultural trends of the time. 

Doors will open at 6:15pm. Complimentary small bites and refreshments will be available.

Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes. Seating will be first-come, first-served.

Racquel Gates is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University. She is the author of Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture (Duke, 2018) and is currently writing her second book, Blackness and the Invention of Hollywood Style. Dr. Gates is also an Academy Film Scholar, a consultant for global media companies, and a regular contributor to podcasts, television programs, and film projects. 

Es‑pranza Humphrey is the Assistant Curator of Collections at Poster House, where her research centers on Black performance, fashion, and visual culture. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, NPR, ABC Here and Now, and the Fashion and Race Database, and  her scholarship on the graphic language of the Black Panther Party has appeared in several international publications. In Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage and Screen, she investigates Black American theater and film posters from the 1870s to the 1940s.

Accessibility Note: Masks and clear masks are available free of charge at the museum. Assistive listening devices and stools are available. ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or a CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) is also available upon request. Please contact access@posterhouse.org or (914) 295-2387 to request interpretation services and to address any other accessibility needs. For other event-related questions, please contact info@posterhouse.org.