FREE SCREENING – BAM BAM: The Sister Nancy Story + BUBBLING BABY + SPIRITUAL CYPHERS: HIP HOP AND TH

FREE OUTDOOR SCREENING

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30th, 2026
7:00 PM/Sunset - 9:00 PM

The Plaza at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Bldg.
163 West 125th Street, New York, NY, 10027

MADE YOU LOOK: H20 (HIP-HOP ODYSSEY)
Co-presented with Hip-Hop Education Center

THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED, IN PART, BY PUBLIC FUNDS FROM THE NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CITY COUNCIL

RAIN LOCATION:
Maysles Documentary Center 
343 Lenox Avenue/Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY, 10027 (between 127th and 128th Streets)  

BAM BAM: THE SISTER NANCY STORY

Alison Duke, June 2024, 98 min

Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam” has been part of our collective consciousness for over 40 years, but what do we really know about her?

This fun, inspirational documentary showcases Sister Nancy's resilience through dynamic tour performances, interviews, archival footage, and reenactments. In an industry notorious for silencing female artists, Sister Nancy is hell-bent on empowering others with her music and knowledge to make a difference—proving that good music can't be stopped!

Alison Duke is an award-winning writer / producer / director and passionate artistic activist committed to boldly telling stories of resistance and change. Recently, she co-wrote and co-produced the television documentary Mr. Jane and Finch directed by Ngardy Conteh George which garnered two 2020 Canadian Screen Awards: the Donald Britain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary, and Best Writing for a Documentary. During the same timeframe, she directed Cool Black North, a two-hour television documentary special for CityTV/Rogers about the unique and vibrant Canadian Black Community and its role in our country’s contemporary identity. The movie goes about it through the POV of 15 former winners of the Harry Jerome Awards. The film was Roger’s top 10 streaming show in February 2019. 

PRECEDED BY:

BUBBLING BABY

Sharine Rijsenburg, 2025, 19 mins.

Sharine Rijsenburg is a creative researcher and visual anthropologist based in Rotterdam. She combines explorations of socio-political issues with engaging storytelling. Her work demonstrates her practice of delving into Dutch and Caribbean archives to investigate the relationship between (self)image, representation, and colonial history.

A short documentary by Sharine Rijsenburg exploring the rich history and cultural significance of bubbling music, a genre that originated in the 1980s within Caribbean-Dutch communities, particularly among Surinamese and Antillean youth in Rotterdam, The Hague, and Amsterdam. DJ Moortje, a Dutch-Caribbean DJ of Curaçaoan descent, is often credited as the pioneer of bubbling. In 1986, he accidentally played a dancehall record at an accelerated tempo in a Rotterdam club. Instead of stopping the track, the crowd responded enthusiastically, dancing in a new, quick, jerking style that became associated with bubbling.

Spiritual Cyphers: HIP-HOP AND THE CHURCH

Director Ariyan Johnson, 2022, 37 min.

Ariyan Johnson shares her personal journey about the struggles and triumphs of her two conflicting loves, Hip-Hop and the Church. Through research and interviews with pastors, historians, artists, and pioneering women hip hop dance artists who stood in the gap to fight against gender biases, the film explores the burgeoning industry of Hip-Hop, and not only her own and the women’s challenge for acceptance within the Church, but also Hip-Hop. 

Ariyan Johnson, a native New Yorker, is a graduate from the “Fame” La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts where she studied dance, she holds a B.A. in Speech Pathology and Audiology and an M.A. in Applied Theatre. Ariyan creates strong female perspectives within the African Diaspora culture specializing in theatrical methods and Hip Hop, Jazz, Afro-Fusion Modern, and African dance forms. She is a multi-disciplinary artist, known for her Independent Spirit Award best female lead nominated performance in the Sundance Special Jury Prize Awarded film - Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., where she represented Hip Hop female dance duos. Some other credits include Law and Order; J.A.G.; The General’s Daughter with John Travolta; Bulworth with Warren Beatty and Halle Berry, where she depicted a rapper influencing Hip Hop culture on the political landscape; and a series regular on The Steve Harvey Show. Johnson’s voice-over work includes cartoons, radio, and television campaigns.