On Thursday, October 29, 2026, we held a SOLD OUT screening of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM with our incredible Community Sponsor and host, the Jamestown Arts Center.
Audience members packed the beautiful gallery for a cinematic trip back in time to a 1972 cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s apartment, organized by filmmaker William Greaves. The film, directed by William’s son David Greaves, is a feature 50 years in the making. The 5-time Critics Choice-Nominated documentary immersed our audience in the once-in-a-lifetime cocktail party that gathered the icons of the Harlem Renaissance together to reminisce, critique, argue, laugh and drink while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape.
After the screening, Co-Directors of the Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading, April H. Brown and S. Kai Cameron shared their reflections on the film and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance in Rhode Island.
