SCREENING ROOMS #1 We gather and dream of new congregations

The first screening in our SCREENING ROOMS programme is Alberta Whittle’s We gather and dream of new congregations.

We gather and dream of new congregations spotlights the Jamaican-born activist Eunice McGhie-Belgrave MBE and her friend and colleague Sonia Hyman, leaders of the Shades of Black Community Family Project in Birmingham. Founded in February 1980 during the aftermath of several riots in Handsworth, Shades of Black made an action plan to focus on rebuilding their community which they felt had been abandoned by social services. Organised by mainly womxn from different life experiences and cultural backgrounds, they produced an intergenerational model of care and compassion within their community.

We gather and dream of new congregations presents conversations, performances and interviews with them and the people whose lives have been impacted by their education, probation and mental health work.

Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher, and curator. She was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award, and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. Alberta is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg. She was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018 and is the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9.

The screening will be followed by a talk between racial activist and group facilitator Stella Munthali and artist Glynis Neslen.

Stella Munthali is the founder of The Black Heritage of Hull. Since July 2023, Stella has delivered anti racism training as a consultancy to businesses and public services city wide. She is the lead facilitator of The Black Heritage of Hull Collective, a monthly group for anyone who is racialised in Hull, providing safe spaces to share lived experience and explore solutions through intergenerational mentorship. In October 2024 she was the Creative Director and Executive Producer of The Sound of Our Skin, a two-day arts festival delivered to dismantle racial stereotypes through exhibitions, live performances and family workshops with The Black Heritage of Hull Creatives. She is a member of the Wilberforce Advisory Board and currently works as an Adult Social Worker.

This project is supported by Film Hub North with National Lottery funding on behalf of the BFI Film Audience Network.

Pricing Structure:

Reflecting our dedication to serving Hull’s diverse communities and the effects of increasing costs of living, we are introducing a tiered pricing structure for SCREENING ROOMS to better support our audience’s access to our programme.

Tickets to SCREENING ROOMS will be offered at two different pricing levels:

£5 Access tickets

‘Access’ tickets contribute towards our operational costs, such as electricity, printing, and staffing, and contribute to the distribution costs of films that we programme as part of SCREENING ROOMS.

£10 Supporter tickets

‘Supporter’ tickets support all the above costs, as well as allowing us to offer Access tickets for those who need them.