Weeksville Watch Night: Black Stories, Unbound

Weeksville Heritage Center presents Weeksville Watch Night: Black Stories, Unbound, a free evening of film and conversation in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Curated by DeShuna Elisa Spencer of the Black Indie Creatives Coalition (BICC) and kweliTV, the program brings together four short films across thriller, documentary, romance and experimental film, followed by a 30-minute fireside conversation with DeShuna Elisa Spencer and Princess Adenike, writer, producer and actress, A Stranger’s Waltz.

Location: Weeksville Heritage Center, 158 Buffalo Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Admission: Free and open to the public

Black Stories, Unbound brings together four short films that move across thriller, documentary, romance and experimental film. Each, in its own way, pushes against the boundaries too often placed around Black lives and Black storytelling.

Across these films, a father fights to save his daughter in a haunting vision of Flint, Michigan; five Black women turn to the courts to hold the Ku Klux Klan accountable; two strangers find an unexpected connection on the streets of New York; and a poet reimagines Black men and her forefathers beyond the weight of oppression. Together, these films explore memory, identity, justice, love, and imagination, reminding us that there is no single Black story.

Program:

NEGROLAND
Drama / Thriller | United States | 13 min | 2019
Director: Jewel McPherson
A young Black father fights to save the life of his young zombie daughter. His attempt to bring her back becomes a torturous journey that forces him to question his own existence in Flint, Michigan.

HOW TO SUE THE KLAN
Documentary | United States | 34 min | 2025
Director: John Beder
Five Black women from Chattanooga used legal ingenuity to take on the Ku Klux Klan in a historic 1982 civil case, fighting to hold them accountable for their crimes and bring justice to their community. Their victory set a legal precedent that continues to inspire the ongoing fight against organized hate.

A STRANGER’S WALTZ
Drama / Romance | United States | 11 min | 2024
Director: Oluseyi Olatujoye
Two young Nigerian Americans on their way to a Nigerian wedding cross paths on the bustling streets of New York City. Their chance encounter sets the stage for a connection that transcends time, weaving a heartfelt story of love, growth and destiny.

THE UNVEILING OF GOD / A LOVE LETTER TO MY FOREFATHERS
Experimental / Documentary | United States | 20 min | 2022
Director: Nia June
Through poetry, music, and moving portraits, Nia June imagines her forefathers and Black men prematurely removed from her life, asking what they could have been if unburdened by the weight of an oppressive system and able to know the God within themselves.

About Our Collaborators

DeShuna Elisa Spencer

DeShuna Elisa Spencer is the Founder & CEO of kweliTV, an award-winning streaming platform that curates and produces authentic stories from across the African diaspora, and the Black Indie Creatives Coalition, a non-profit that amplifies the voices and contributions of talented, under resourced Black independent creators. A graduate of Jackson State University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), former AmeriCorps VISTA and journalist, Spencer began her career writing for The Clarion-Ledger, The Oakland Tribune and The Crisis Magazine and later served as Director of Communications for EdMarket. She also founded emPower Magazine and hosted and produced emPower Hour on Washington, DC’s WPFW 89.3 FM, where she engaged artists, activists, scholars and community leaders in conversations about social change.

A Halcyon Fellow, Voqal Fellow and 2023 Black Ambition Prize winner, Spencer is featured in the book How We Fight White Supremacy alongside leaders, organizers, artists and entrepreneurs advancing racial justice through their work. She has been featured in CNN Business, Fast Company, TIME, Refinery29, Emmy Magazine and other national outlets. Under her leadership, kweliTV has been recognized by PCMag as one of the top movie streaming services in the United States since 2020 and remains the only Black-owned, woman-owned and independently owned platform on the list. In 2025, kweliTV was also recognized by ANA AIMM as the Most Culturally Effective Black-Focused Media Brand (Silver Winner).

Black Indie Creatives Coalition

The Black Indie Creatives Coalition (BICC) is a nonprofit social enterprise building an equitable creative economy for independent Black storytellers. We address two urgent gaps: the lack of infrastructure that sustains Black creators and the absence of ownership in the stories that shape how the world views Black life. Our mission is to drive narrative change and economic amplification for talented Black filmmakers, immersive artists, and writers through development, funding, recognition, and global distribution.

This program is supported through public funding from Governor Kathy Hochul; the New York State Senate, including Senator Kevin S. Parker and Senator Zellnor Y. Myrie; Assemblymember Latrice M. Walker; Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani; Speaker of the New York City Council Julie Menin; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, and through generous support from the Altschul Foundation, Brooklyn Org, the Charina Endowment Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, the Ford Foundation, the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, the Scherman Foundation, The Robert M. Schiffman Foundation, and the William C. Bullitt Foundation.

Cover Image: Still from Glenville: ©Kevin Jerome Everson & Kahlil I. Pedizisai; courtesy the artists; trilobite-arts DAC; Picture Palace Picture
Clip from Glenville, Kevin Jerome Everson & Kahlil I. Pedizisai; courtesy the artist(s); trilobite-arts DAC; Picture Palace Pictures