16 BARs
Harlem has ALWAYs been the epicenter of American Culture. It was instrumental in The 1920s Harlem Renaissance, a time when Blacks migrated from the institutionalized racism of the south, to find relief and a better standard of living. Harlem, being the center of that migration, hosted an artistic, intellectual, and social explosion that opened its arms to some of the greatest AFRO American Artist, Actors, Musicians, Designers, Poets, Writers, and etc.
The Harlem Renaissance had given birth to a new narrative of the black man. In fact, blacks took control and rewrote their own narratives, rather than let degrading caricatures and white stereotypes define them.
Once again, almost 100yrs later, throughout America, blacks are experiencing another renaissance, and taking CONTROL of their narratives. Once again, HARLEM is in the center of the explosion, on November 7th at The Maysles Center in Harlem, @lightyear Ent. is debuting an independent documentary entitled “16 Bars.”
This independent documentary is focused on the lives of 4 imprisoned men, who collaborate with Grammy Award Winner, Todd “Speech” Thomas from the 90s group Arrested Development. Speech documents his journey with inmates at The Richmond City Jail, where he conducted music shops with them. His goal was to shed light on the US Criminal Justice System, by bringing the voices and stories of incarcerated people, to a larger platform.
The documentary, and Album, records the unique rehabilitation efforts of the inmates, who in fact, wrote and recorded original material in the jail’s makeshift recording studio. The four artist: Teddy Kane, Garland Carr, Anthony Johnston and Devonte James, along with the jail’s gospel choir and Speech, collectively produced the FILM in order to highlight the hurdles and injustices faced by Afro-Americans. The film, as with, many Harlem Renaissance Intellectuals, exposes America's criminal justice system by shedding light on the plight of American's disenfranchised and their journey. In addition, we find them rewriting the narrative, in hopes of changing the distorted perception of America’s abused, abandoned, and misunderstood segment.
The documentary will be released in New York on November 8th, in Los Angeles on November 15th, and will expand from there to select cities. Atlanta will be hosting a sneak preview screening on October 5th, sponsored by the National Center for Human and Civil
rights. As for the album, it will be digitally released on November 8, 2019 by lightyear/caroline/UMG.