Summer of Soul | National Geographic

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

(Fast-paced drumming music)

[Man] What time is it?

♪ This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius ♪

"Summer of Soul" is about the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969. With so many greats of music in the day, Tony Lawrence and Hal Tulchin came up with an idea that we need to throw a beautiful soul festival to use music to heal a community that's hurting.

♪ Let the sun shine ♪

And when it came time to distributing, they couldn't find any takers. In fact, a counterpart festival that happened about 10 days later called Woodstock pretty much got to define an entire generation. We wanted progress. We're black people and we should be proud of this.

The day that we got nominated for an Academy Award, I was just flabbergasted because I did not go into this project thinking that I was going to make something that would affect people emotionally like this. Getting nominated really isn't about me, it's about documenting a moment in time and the world's gonna see it. When you see films about the Civil Rights era, there's one slight area that always gets overlooked, Black joy.

Black joy humanizes us. And "Summer of Soul" is just an awesome look at beautiful people having fun in a way that you've never seen anyone from this era look.

♪ Gonna let my hair down in Harlem ♪

♪ 125th Street, now here I come ♪

AI for ELA with Khan Academy

The Taoist Way of Letting Go

View All

See How Dancing Helps This Young Refugee Feel Welcome in a New Country | Short Film Showcase

[Music] [Music] [Music] We’re gonna do the question of the day. I am from Karachi, Pakistan. I’m nervous but got them from blast. Everyone looking for my face. I want to be a little bit challenged, so to be ready in September for school, you need to anal…

How to sell private jets to billionaires

This is a day in the life of a private jet broker. My day starts in a meeting with No. She’s an interior designer. We discussed renovating my fuselage. Nor presented intriguing designs for new lighting, new carpet, and even suggests adding a bed—a mini be…

See Why Jumping in a Pool Saved This Blind Woman's Life | Short Film Showcase

My first time in the pool, I was 49 years old. My coach was in the water telling me, “Jump in, Vivian,” he said. “Haven’t you been baptized?” I said, “Not like this.” I was afraid of what was going to happen to me in all this water. The kids said, “Look a…

The Sacrifice of Cassini | Cosmos: Possible Worlds