Black on Screen: Super Fly (1972)

Black on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture continues with “100 Years of Black Music on Camera.” From Jazz, to Funk, to Hip-Hop, this season celebrates the sonic archive of Black life as seen and heard on film.

Join us for a screening of Gordon Parks Jr.’s 1972 classic, Super Fly. The thrilling blaxploitation era drama stars Ron O’Neal as Youngblood Priest, a smooth New York City drug pin plotting to retire from life in the fast lane. But hoping to cash in for the last time, Priest embarks on a final scheme before he cleans up his act. What follows is a tornado of hijinks and seduction, as seen through Parks Jr.’s evocative lens and heard through Curtis Mayfield’s third studio album Super Fly, produced as the original film score. Mayfield, with this groundbreaking soul album would go on to out-gross the film itself. Lauded for its politically charged lyrics and funky tenor, Super Fly remains one of the most influential soundtracks of Black power, inspiring future genres of Black music through a blueprint of defiance.

Running Time: 93 minutes

Following the film, stay for a conversation featuring comedian and co-host of Shouting at the Screen, Wyatt Cenac, and music journalist and host of Milestones: Celebrating the Culture on WBGO, Angélika Beener. Moderating the conversation will be Daniella Brito, Curatorial Specialist at the Schomburg Center.

Black on Screen: A Century of Radical Visual Culture, captures 100 years of local and transnational Black movement work and artistic evolution on film. Sourced from The Schomburg’s collection and others, it takes a kaleidoscopic look at Black life and expression across diasporas, rendering a range of storytelling traditions that incite and inspire Black world-building. The Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division (MIRS, pronounced “meers”) at the Schomburg Center collects and preserves audio and moving image (AMI) materials related to the experiences of people of African descent. The division has amassed nearly 400 collections, approximately 5,000 square feet, in a variety of formats, which captures the gestures and sounds of major historical, artistic and cultural moments and influencers. While the strength is the Black American holdings there is considerable Caribbean and African representation in the collection.

Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

This year, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding! Join us all year long for a wide array of special events, exhibitions, and more as we celebrate this milestone and continue the legacy of Arturo Schomburg.

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FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early. We generally overbook to ensure a full house.

GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.

ACCESSIBLILITY Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail [email protected].

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that personal and professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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