An Evening with Topper Carew
Special Features: Tickets $8!
New Perspective on the New Thing: An Evening with Topper Carew
In 1966, Howard graduate student, architect and filmmaker Colin "Topper" Carew opened The New Thing Art & Architecture Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. It was founded to cultivate opportunities for Black architects, but Carew's vision evolved into a multi-disciplinary organization that hosted hundreds of concerts, workshops and free classes for the youth between 1966 and 1972. The herculean efforts of "community architect" Carew to provide arts programming, educate the youth and build community has had a lasting impact on the fabric of Washington, DC.
Carew would later move to Los Angeles and become a filmmaker and agent, producing 1983's D.C. CAB and the '90s television series MARTIN, starring Martin Lawrence.
This program will include a screening of Carew's new short documentary about The New Thing, a new short documentary called THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, a conversation with the filmmaker about his career and a screening of D.C. CAB.
Presented in collaboration with the exhibit "New Perspective on the New Thing: A Photography Exhibition Documenting DC's Revolutionary Community Arts Center, 1966-1972" opening February 7 at American University's Katzen Arts Center.
THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE
On January 29, a rocket delivered a payload to the International Space Station (ISS) that included the film THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE, featuring children's choirs singing "This Little Light of Mine." The ISS will circle the earth 16 times a day for 30 days and broadcast the film back to ThisLittleLightofMineinSpace.com. Filmmaker Topper Carew states: "THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE is named after the song. It is an inspirational song that many people know around the world. The lyrics to "This Little Light of Mine" are symbolic, positive and memorable. They radiate a message of hope, healing, peace, love, joy, coming together for the common good and being our sisters' and brothers' keepers. The planet could use some good energy right about now. This project is dedicated to the children of the world, because they matter.” DIR/PROD Topper Carew, Anthony Jarvis; SCR Nicole Nelson. 2023, U.S., color, 19 min. NOT RATED
THE NEW THING: THE NEW THING NEVER DIED, IT MULTIPLIED
“Before bussing, in my Boston neighborhood and when I integrated an elementary school, I experienced violence. Two black eyes, chases and had a white friend beaten and bloodied by white boys just for being with me. Racism implanted itself in my being at an early age. In my senior year of a test high school, when I expressed my college intention, the white guidance counselor said I would be better off working in the navy yard as a sheet-metal worker. A few weeks later, a Black guidance counselor was additionally hired. He got me into the Howard University Architecture School. At Howard, I was motivated to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). I was a voter registration SNCC field secretary in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, and my life changed forever. That summer motivated me to become a people's architect, challenging the traditional practice of architecture. And, publicly and programmatically, challenging the dominant, exclusive Euro-centric public aesthetic of the DC art scene. The New Thing moved from our small space on Florida Ave. to an old laundromat on 18th St. to house a kids summer program. The program evolved and became an art and architectural center with more space and more programming for kids and young teens. This film is a view of The New Thing's history and accomplishments in the arts, architecture, concert production, politics and community organization during its lifetime in Washington.” — Topper Carew DIR/SCR/PROD Topper Carew. 2023, U.S., color, 22 min. NOT RATED
D.C. CAB
Let the wackiest Cab Co. in town take you for a ride! A modest hit in 1983, D.C. CAB became a mainstay on cable television for the duration of the decade. A familiar story of scrappy underdogs working as a team to wrest a measure of success from an unfair system, the film features an array of entertainers on the verge of breakout success, including Mr. T, Gary Busey, Irene Cara, Marsha Warfield and Bill Maher. Produced by former DC resident Topper Carew, D.C. CAB now serves as a time capsule for a vanished Washington, with scenes shot in the U Street/Shaw and Eckington neighborhoods that look very different today. Carew also hired a largely minority crew ("43% of the people behind the camera for D.C. CAB were people of color," Carew told the Washington Post in 1984), a degree of progressive hiring far ahead of Hollywood's practices at the time. DIR/SCR Joel Schumacher; PROD Topper Carew. U.S., 1983, color, 100 min. RATED R
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 150 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, February 09, 2024
Genre: Comedy
