Uhuru Sasa Shule kids posing outside school (Osei T. Chandler)
‘We are the original Wakanda children’: A new documentary explores the legacy of The East
'The Sun Rises in the East' explores the group's 1970s efforts to build an independent Black nation in Brooklyn
The rich, Black culture that Bedford-Stuyvesant and pockets of Brooklyn are known for didn’t happen by accident. It was built. The builder, at least in part, was The East, a pan-African cultural organization responsible for creating dozens of self-sufficient Black-owned businesses and institutions in 1970s Brooklyn.
For the first time, the work, hands, and voices of The East that helped create and define Black Brooklyn as we know it, are on display in the official trailer of ‘The Sun Rises in The East,’ an independent documentary film from Black-Owned Brooklyn founders Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa.
The couple were drawn to the story of The East, and felt compelled to tell it, because they recognize the scope of its influence and impact are not fully understood. “There are people walking throughout Bed-Stuy and Central Brooklyn who have no idea what The East is,” says Cynthia Gordy Giwa. That it was an organization responsible for laying the foundation for an independent Black nation in Brooklyn.
Throughout the film trailer, archival photos of The East’s various initiatives—Uhuru Sasa Shule (Freedom Now School), East Jazz Club, The Kununuana Food Co-Op, The International African Arts Festival (formerly known as the African Street Carnival), Black News newspaper and publishing company, and more—are accompanied by voices from The East founders, as well as children of The East.
“We are the original Wakanda children,” says one of them, now grown.
Tayo Giwa is hopeful this bridge between past efforts and their present-day fruit resonates with viewers. “[‘The Sun Rises in The East’] is a source of inspiration for young movement leaders,” he says. “Look at what people are able to create that can have a long lasting impact in their community just by working together.”
This love letter to Black Brooklyn premieres with a private screening in Brooklyn this November before hitting the film festival circuit in 2022.
