This is a virtual only program hosted via City of Asylum @ Home.

Film historian and writer Wil Haygood visits City of Asylum virtually to discuss his newest book “Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World.” Wil is joined conversation by Pittsburgh filmmaker and activist Emmai Alaquiva. 

Named a New York Times and NPR best book of 2021, Colorization examines 100 years of Black cinema, using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture, civil rights, and racism in America.

This program is presented in partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books. More information: www.pittsburghbookfestival.org

Featured Artists
Emmai Alaquiva is a 4-Time Emmy Award-winning film director, photographer, and composer. Once homeless, Alaquiva is now the CEO of Ya Momz House, Inc., co-founder of Hip-Hop On L.O.C.K. and curator of OpticVoices. Alaquiva has been nationally honored as Black Enterprise Magazine’s “Top 100 Modern Men of Distinction”, appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf to serve on the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and is a national BMe Community Leader recognized by President Barack Obama. Most recently, Alaquiva wrote and directed a viral PSA, called “Unspeakable” which aims to amplify the voices of the Deaf, hard of hearing and those with disabilities. Emmai won two 2021 Emmy Award for his social justice work and was selected by GOOGLE as a contributing film director for the 2021 Google Year End Search. 

Wil Haygood is the author of Tigerland, which was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; Showdown, a finalist for an NAACP Image Award; In Black and White; and The Butler, which was made into a film directed by Lee Daniels. He has been a correspondent for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer finalist. Haygood is a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, and is currently a Boadway Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.