Films at the Schomburg: Seeking Mavis Beacon

Join us for a screening of the documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon in collaboration with The Kitchen and its first traveling exhibition, Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art. In a moment where technology mediates and has transformed all parts of a visual culture, Code Switch provokes reconsiderations about what “Internet art” is altogether.

centers the most recognizable woman in technology who lives in our collective imagination. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the software’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY detectives, Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross, search for the model while posing questions about identity and artificial intelligence.

Following the screening, stay for a talkback with The Kitchen's Legacy Russell, Executive Director & Chief Curator and Angelique Rosales Salgado, Curatorial Assistant and the film's director Jazmin Jones and co-producer Olivia McKayla Ross.

Run time: 1h 42m | Director: Jazmin Jones

Watch the trailer .

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

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS

Want more films related to Code Switch? Join us in the afternoon for a 1PM screening of Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project. Before “fake news” Marion Stokes was fighting to protect the truth by archiving everything that was said and shown on television.

Header Image: Still from the film Seeking Mavis Beacon. Courtesy of NEON.

#SchomburgLive

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Drawing its title from André L. Brock’s groundbreaking text Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures (2020), Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art presented by The Kitchen, explores the relationship between Black cultural production and the legacy of computation as a mode of machinic engagement and creative inspiration. The first part of the exhibition at the Schomburg explores work of visual artists including Tom Lloyd, David Drake (otherwise known as “Dave the Potter”), Benjamin Patterson, Howardena Pindell, Candis Mosely Pettway, Mattie Ross, Ulysses Jenkins, Milford Graves, Faith Ringgold, Blondell Cummings, Lorraine O’Grady, Jack Whitten, and composer and scholar of experimental music George Lewis. It also recognizes the influence of Afrofuturist science fiction writers and thinkers such as Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler as well as guerrilla archivist, access television producer, and librarian Marion Stokes.

The debut of this project’s “broadcast” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture marks an unprecedented collaboration between two storied New York institutions. From The Kitchen’s founding in 1971, the organization has remained a leading nexus for experimental artists; as part of its institutional history The Kitchen maintains a living archive of over 4,000 artists. Founded in 1925, the Schomburg’s mission is to preserve African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences; its research library is internationally renowned. These institutions are mutual sites ripe for interventions, discovery, memory-making, and decolonial praxis; this collaboration presents an opportunity for both institutions to further broaden their archives.

Learn more about the exhibition.

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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.

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 professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

IN-PERSON | By registering for this event, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending an in-person program at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold The New York Public Library, its Trustees, officers, agent and employees liable for any illness or injury.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

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