IN CINEMA
AS WE SPEAK: RAP MUSIC ON TRIAL
Tickets: $15 General Admission / $7 Reduced Price
Thursday, June 6th at 7PM
J.M. Harper, 2024, 96 min.
AS WE SPEAK is a feature documentary that explores the growing weaponization of rap lyrics in the United States criminal justice system. For the last 30-years, law enforcement have quietly used rap artist’s artistic creations as evidence in criminal cases with alarming efficacy. Prosecutors ask jurors to suspend the distinction between author and narrator, reality and fiction, and to read lyrics as literal confessions of guilt. No other art form is exploited like this in court, and the tactic relies on racist stereotypes about rap music and the young men of color who are its primary creators. The documentary follows Bronx rap artist Kemba (NPR) as he journeys through today’s meccas of hip-hop, building the case for black lyrics via intimate conversations with rap artists, academics, politicians, legal experts and music industry executives.
Post-screening discussion with J.M. Harper, moderated by Nia Whitmal
J.M. Harper is a writer/director living in Brooklyn. A multi-hyphenate documentarian, he’s edited four features including the Emmy-nominated Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy (Netflix, Sundance 2022); A Kid from Coney Island (Netflix), about the life of Stephon Marbury; and Down a Dark Stairwell (Criterion Channel), about the NYPD murder of Akai Gurley. In 2020, he won Jury Awards at the Sundance Film Festival (Non-Fiction) and SXSW Film Festival (Fiction) as editor of Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma. As a commercial director at Park Pictures, he has accrued numerous awards at Cannes, Clios, UKVMAs, Adweek and beyond.
Nia Whitmal is a PhD student in sociocultural anthropology at Cornell University. Her research interests include the Black middle class and Black homeownership in New York City. She is particularly interested in Black Harlemites who own and/or will inherit historic brownstones from their forebears. Alongside doctoral research, Nia teaches undergraduates documentary production and works on independent films in New York.
