BIOGRAPHIES
Claudrena N. Harold Born Jacksonville, Florida, lives and works in Charlottesville, VA. Associate Dean for Social Sciences and Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia, Claudrena N. Harold specializes in African American history, Black cultural politics, and labor history. The collaboration with UVA colleague Kevin Jerome Everson on two short films, Sugarcoated Arsenic (2013) and Foosball: U. of Virginia Charlottesville, 1976 (2013) as part of the multimedia project Black Fire, supported by an Arts in Action grant were her debut film credits as co-director, writer and producer. Subsequent films reflecting Harold’s ongoing research into the history of Black student activism at UVA include We Demand (2016), Fastest Man in the State (2017), How Can I Ever Be Late (2017) Black Bus Stop (2019), Pride (2021) and Accidental Athlete (2023). These films have screened at numerous international film festivals and art institutions, including Chicago International Film Festival, Black Star, Berlinale, New York Film Festival, IFFR, EMAF, IKFF Hamburg, Cinema du Reel, Doc Lisboa, BFI/London, Edinburgh, Porto Post Doc, Indie Memphis, AFI Fest, Crossroads Festival, Fronteira Festival Brazil, and have been featured at the Whitney Biennial, Harvard Film Archive, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Austrian Film Museum, mumok, Vienna, and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea. Claudrena is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Garvey Movement in the Urban South, 1918-1942 (2007), which chronicles the history of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association from the perspective of black women and men living below the Mason-Dixon Line; New Negro Politics in the Jim Crow South (2013) which details how the development of New Negro politics and thought was shaped by people, ideas, organizations, and movements rooted in the South, bringing into full view the ways southern blacks not only validated the idea of the New Negro as a national phenomenon but also significantly informed and reshaped the contours of black nationality and class formation; and When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras (2020), an exploration into gospel music's essential place as an outlet for African Americans to express their spiritual and cultural selves. She is the co-editor, with Louis Nelson of Charlottesville 2017: The Legacy of Race and Inequity (2018). Kevin Jerome Everson Born Mansfield, Ohio, lives and works in Charlottesville, VA. Kevin Jerome Everson is the Commonwealth and Ruffin Foundation Distinguished Professor of Studio Art and Director of Studio Arts at the University of Virginia. Recipient of the Guggenheim, Heinz Award in Art and Humanities, Berlin Prize, Alpert Award for Film/Video, and Rome Prize, Everson's art practice encompasses photography, printmaking, sculpture and film, 12 award-winning features and over 250 solo and collaborative short form works that screen regularly at international film festivals, cinemas, galleries, museums and art biennials. Everson's work has been the subject of retrospectives and solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern/Film, London, Highline, NYC, Cinema du Reel/Centre Pompidou, Paris, Art Windsor- Essex, Windsor, Canada (in association with Media City Film Festival), Andrew Kreps Gallery, NYC, Halle fur Kunst Steiermark, Graz, Austria, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Glasgow Shorts, Cinematek Brussels, Cork International Film Festival, Visions du Reel, Nyon, and the Harvard Film Archive . His films have been featured at the Whitney Biennial (2008, 2012, 2017), the 2013 Sharjah Biennial, the 2018 Carnegie International, the 2023 Contour Biennale, Mechelen, Belgium and the 2024 Thailand Biennale. Everson’s award-winning films regularly screen at international film festivals including Black Star, Sundance, IFFR, Berlinale, Cinema du Reel, EMAF, Courtisane, Locarno, BlackStar, Venice, Toronto, New York Film Festival, BFI/London, Doc Lisboa, True/False, Crossroads, Media City, AFI Fest, Chicago International Film Festival, BAFICI ,Jeonju, DMZ Docs, cinemas, galleries, museums and public and private art institutions, including Whitechapel, London, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, Museum of Modern Art, NY, Reina Sofia, Madrid, LUMA Foundation, Switzerland, National Museum of African American History, Washington, D.C., MOCA, L.A., Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and REDCAT, Los Angeles. A 3-DVD boxed set, Broad Daylight and Other Times, was released by Video Data Bank (U.S.) in 2011 and a DVD dedicated to films focusing on the rituals and gestures of labor, I Really Hear That: Quality Control and Other Works was released by VDB in 2017. The two disc blu-ray How You Live Your Story: Selected Works of Kevin Jerome Everson, was released by the UK based boutique label Second Run DVD in Fall 2020 and Second Run's special blu-ray edition release of Everson's eight hour factory film, Park Lanes was released in February 2025, featuring a booklet with essay/interview contributions from Michael B. Gillespie, Matthew Barrington and Elena Gorfinkel. Everson has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, NEA, NEH, Ohio Arts Council, and the Virginia Museum, grants and commissions from Just Films/Ford Foundation, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Creative Capital and the Sundance Institute, residencies at Mobile Frames/Media City (Windsor/Detroit), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Yaddo and MacDowell Colony, and numerous university fellowships. |
FRAMES OF REFERENCE, FALL 2025
BLACK FIRE // KEVIN JEROME EVERSON & CLAUDRENA N. HAROLD PROGRAM ONE: Wednesday, November 19th - 6pm Jepson Hall 118, Jepson School, University of Richmond Sugarcoated Arsenic (2013) A cinematic exploration of African American intellectual, social, and political life at University of Virginia during the 1970s. Starring Erin Stewart as Vivian Gordon, the director of UVA’s Black Studies program between 1975 and 1980, the film tells the story of African American women and men who through their public and private gestures sought to create a beloved community that thrived on intellectual exchange, self-critique, and human warmth. Pride (2021) Set in Charlottesville during the early 1990s, an aspiring writer finalizes stories for the latest issue of Pride, a student-run newspaper at the University of Virginia. Over a hectic two-day period, she puts the finishing touches on the upcoming issue. Accidental Athlete (2023) Paulette Jones Morant waxes poetically about being one of the first Black Women scholastic athletes at the University of Virginia. Hampton (2019) The University of Virginia gospel choir Black Voices returns home from a triumphant concert in Hampton Roads. Black Bus Stop (2019) Students reclaim a popular gathering spot on the campus of the University of Virginia. Chelsea Drive, 4:00, 2025 Chelsea Drive displays three decades of University of Virginia Black student style, fashion and dance. PROGRAM TWO: Thursday, November 20th - 6pm Jepson Hall 118, Jepson School, University of Richmond We Demand (2016) The story of the anti-Vietnam War movement from the perspective of James R. Roebuck, the first African American president of University of Virginia’s Student Council. Over a ten-day period of unprecedented student upheaval in 1970, Roebuck confronted a series of political challenges and existential dilemmas. This budding activist and future U.S. representative was the quintessential militant insider whose cool temperament and ideological flexibility proved quite useful as UVA appeared on the verge of imploding from within. Gospel Hill (2022) Two Black University of Virginia hospital employees talking about the job site in a Albemarle County speakeasy. How Can I Ever Be Late (2017) A Sly and the Family Stone tarmac arrival as a point of departure. Fastest Man in the State (2017) Kent Merritt waxing poetically about being one of the first four Black scholarship athletes at the University of Virginia. Dooni (2025) Dooni is the eulogy, voiced by actor Timothy Johnson, of the American soul singer and disco legend Sylvester (1947-1988) as delivered by the gospel singer and preacher Walter Hawkins. 
|