Yogi Dada’s “GRAFFICA” film has already received rave reviews. The artsy project won Best Feature Film in the Black Lens category at Birmingham’s 2021 Sidewalk Film Festival, along with the Award of Excellence with the Fire Island Film Festival in New York. Dada is taking the inspiring project to new heights with the premiere performance of “GRAFFICA: Live” at her home church, St. John AME, in Birmingham this Saturday in a co-presentation with the Magic City Poetry Festival. Tickets are currently sold out but those interested in attending can still come at 3:45pm to claim seats that are left open.
“Much like the film itself, it started as a small idea that blossomed,” Dada shares of the live experience. The first film screening featured youth poets from Putnam thanks to DISCO, dancers from the Alabama School of Fine Arts with choreography from the great Germaul Barnes, and celebrated black businesses and local creatives. “This year we are doing the same thing, just bigger and better.” The live edition will also feature African drumming, a sign language dance by Yogi, and a panel discussion with the involved artists after the screening.
One of the most beautiful moments that Dada recognized from her first screening of the film was the diversity of the audience in terms of race and age. She was especially inspired by seeing a spark ignited in some viewers who hadn’t yet seen issues presented from this perspective. “They saw Black culture through the arts in a way that they had not seen it before, and it left them wanting to be more proactive in healing our community concerning race-related issues,” she shares.
Recognition for the film came from two of Yogi’s hometowns - Birmingham and New York. “It was kind of a confirmation of my journey of trusting that what you have inside of you - this divine gift - is really something that blesses the community and other people,” Dada reflects, “Having it recognized by the city’s in which I’ve lived was unexpected but it fortified my beliefs in continuing the journey as an artist.”
The hometown support continues this year as the city of Birmingham contributed to the live screening by awarding GRAFFICA one of the Community Arts Grants due to its artistic merit and positive impact on the city. Dada has no plans to slow down the momentum, and has vision of taking the live performance to Magic City schools and beyond.
Birmingham helped make both Yogi Dada and GRAFFICA into who they are today, and Dada sees this truth when reflecting on what it means to make cinema magic in the Magic City. “One, it’s not easy. Two, it’s very rewarding. I find in the places where something is most necessary you may have the most challenges, but it’s been very rewarding. I’ve grown as an artist, as a business woman, and just as a human. I don’t know that I could have been anywhere else and these types of things would have been pressed out of me. GRAFFICA is a project where I really got a chance to share my journey as a Black artist and the environment that helped mold me as that artist. Being able to share that with the community that created who Yogi Dada is now is full-circle and I’m ready to share it with the world.”
We are honored that Birmingham is the place where Yogi Dada puts out visual masterpieces and plays her djembe to those passing by at East Lake Park. She is a living testimony to how one person can positively impact their city.
