BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown, and Indigenous film and media artists, is pleased to announce a second season of its podcast Many Lumens with Maori Karmael Holmes. The first episode—featuring producer, professor, cultural consultant, self-described “maroon academic,” and author Dr. Yaba Blay in conversation with Holmes—debuts today. Following the success of the first season, which highlighted guests such as dream hampton and Arthur Jafa, the second season includes twelve episodes, available weekly on Wednesdays through July 27.
Audiences will hear from trailblazers such as interdisciplinary scholar Imani Perry, currently the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University; artist Amy Sherald, who became a household name after painting the official portrait of First Lady Michelle Obama; and poet Sonia Sanchez, a leader of the historic Black Arts Movement. This season will also feature old friends of the organization, including filmmaker and artistTerence Nance, whose HBO series Random Acts of Flyness premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival in 2018. Spanning genres and generations, these exchanges will explore histories, forge communities across time and space, and imagine our collective future.
“I’m thrilled to share new episodes of Many Lumens with our listeners across the globe,” said Maori Karmael Holmes. “We have an incredible lineup of guests this season working in a myriad of fields including visual art, film, music, and food who generously spent time with me sharing insight into what has shaped them. I hope those tuning in will join me in learning from these radical thinkers.”
The season’s first episode, available now, presents Blay and Holmes discussing standards of beauty, the academy, and the pressures levied upon Black women to conform. Many Lumens listeners can tune into new and previous episodes on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, RSS, and other podcast outlets. For more information about Many Lumens, visit manylumens.com.
For information about BlackStar Projects, including its festival and programs, visit blackstarfest.org.
About Many Lumens
BlackStar founder Maori Karmael Holmes chats with the most groundbreaking artists, change makers, and cultural workers — finding meaning in the intersections of art, social change, and popular culture.
About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects is the producer of the BlackStar Film Festival, an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and global communities of color — showcasing films by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from around the world. In addition to the acclaimed festival, BlackStar presents a myriad of programming across film and visual culture year-round, including the twice-annual journal Seen, the podcast Many Lumens, and the Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, among other initiatives.
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