Malcolm X Human Rights Film Festival Will Take Place In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — The following news release comes courtesy of a Patch Newark community member. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

November 6 and 7, 2026 will see the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee (MXCC) launch its first annual Malcolm X Human Rights Festival, in partnership with the Community Media Center (CMC) at Express Newark, the community arts venue at Rutgers University Newark.

Describing it as a community-based festival where social justice intersects with human rights, using Malcolm X as its anchor, the festival is the manifestation of a long-simmering idea inspired by the documentary work on Malcolm X by the late Gil Noble. Noble, who hosted the longstanding community television show “Like It Is” on WABC TV until his untimely death in 2012, produced a number of critically acclaimed documentaries on Malcolm X, including his Emmy Award winning El Hajj Malik El Shabazz-Malcolm X.

This festival is not to be confused with its New York version originally scheduled for this past September that will be announced soon.

This first run of this Newark-based festival will include two Newark dimensions. The first is the opening night's spotlight film “Two Suns of Georgia” on Friday evening. The film centers on the important, but often forgotten, historic meeting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Nation Of Islam's leader, the honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1966. That year saw Dr. King literally move to Chicago and live in one of its most impoverished housing complexes to dramatize American poverty in anticipation of his organization's Poor People's Campaign. The film captures the two very different legacies and impacts of these great leaders born of the same segregated soil. This year marks 60 years since that pivotal meeting. The film is directed and produced by Newark based filmmaker Hafiz Farid. It will be shown promptly at 6:30 p.m.

The second film with Newark dimensions will be the feature film “Norman/Norman,” a heartbreaking film capturing the story of recent Rutgers alum Norman Davy's own ordeal with domestic violence losing his mother to it as a child, and seeking reconciliation with his long-estranged father. This will close out the festival on Saturday. The City of Newark's Office of Violence Prevention will be a special partner for that film's screening. That will be screened promptly at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.

CMC is especially excited to have local journalist and filmmaker Yoruba Richen's latest film “Free Joan Little,” an incredible survivor's rights story about a Black woman who defended herself and escaped after being raped by a jail guard in North Carolina in the 1970s, among the films screened on Saturday afternoon. This film will be screened at 1 p.m.

Among the other films being screened on Saturday are “Durban 400” and “Justice On Trial.”

“Durban 400” captures a pivotal moment at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa, where a delegation of Pan African activists from the Diaspora united to compel that international forum to have the TransAtlantic Slave Trade declared a 'crime against humanity' meriting reparations. It was a pivotal moment for the quest for Reparations. This will be screened at 2 p.m.

“Justice on Trial” takes on the long-suppressed evidence surrounding the case of imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu Jamal and the incredible lengths gone to deny him justice. It is being shown to honor the 60th anniversary of the Black Panther Party. The film is also being screened in homage to its director and producer Johanna Fernandez who passed away in recent months. This will be screened at 3:30 p.m.

All of the films will be shown at Express Newark, located at 54 Halsey Street, Newark. Admission is free. Registration is preferred. See this link to register. Donations are welcome.

The festival is being co-curated by Zayid Muhammad for MXCC and Yvonne Shirley for CMC.

Doors will open Friday evening at 6 p.m. Doors will open Saturday at noon.

The festival is made possible through the partnership between the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee and the Community Media Center, and with special assistance from the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery of the City of Newark and the Rutgers Newark Alumni Association.

For more information on the work of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, now in its 33rd year, text 973-202-0745.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about advertising on Patch here.