The Watermelon Woman
Open to Everyone
The wry, incisive debut feature by Cheryl Dunye gave cinema something bracingly new and groundbreaking: a vibrant representation of Black lesbian identity by a Black lesbian filmmaker. Dunye stars as Cheryl, a video-store clerk and aspiring director whose interest in forgotten Black actresses leads her to investigate an obscure 1930s performer known as the Watermelon Woman, whose story proves to have surprising resonances with Cheryl’s own life as she navigates a new relationship.
The film screening will be followed by a community conversation with professors SaraEllen Strongman (Afroamerican and African Studies), Lydia Kelow-Bennett (Afroamerican and African Studies), and graduate student Sydney Tunstall (English and Women’s and Gender Studies).