Black Joy Film Fest
2026-07-09 18:30 - 2026-08-27 20:30 (America/New_York) | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
Come join us at the Black Joy Film Fest: a celebration of Black excellence and uplifting stories on the big screen!
Our annual outdoor film screening event will showcase films highlighting the resilience and triumphs of Black joy. Get ready to laugh, cry, and feel inspired as we come together to honor the beauty of our community. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and support Black creatives.

Pack your lawn chair, bring the family, grab your favorite snacks, and settle in for an evening of film, and community under the summer sky.

JULY 23: Like Ah Boss: Journey of a Soca King: An intimate and unfiltered look into the life and legacy of one of the Caribbean’s most influential cultural icons. Often hailed as the “Michael Jackson of the Caribbean,” Machel Montano has built a career spanning more than four decades, redefining Soca music while elevating Caribbean culture onto the global stage.
JULY 30: THE DEBUTANTES: Focusing on the first group of Black debutantes in Canton, Ohio in a decade, this documentary follows the young women as they unpack the ball’s legacy and chart their path forward, both for tradition and themselves.
AUG 6: QUEEN OF KATWE: Based on the story of Phiona Mutesi, as told in Tim Crothers’s nonfiction book of the same name, Nair’s kid-friendly tale of perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds is distinguished by a rare level of authenticity and even rarer absence of sentimentality—and also features a soundtrack contribution (and on-screen cameo) by a young man by the name of Zohran Mamdani.
AUG 13: WE WANT THE FUNK!: WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul, and early jazz roots, to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown’s dynamism, the extraterrestrial funk of George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle, and Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, the story also traces funk’s influences on both new wave and hip-hop.
AUG 27: LOST REGGAE TAPES: A newly discovered treasure trove of tapes from Studio 17, or Randy’s located in downtown Kingston Jamaica, is the starting point for this remarkable story about a Chinese Jamaican family who helped create the music we now know as reggae.

Black Joy Film Fest: ELDER'S CORNER
2026-08-06 18:30 - 20:30 | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
Come join us for a night of celebration and empowerment at the Black Joy Film Fest screening of Elder's Corner. Followed by a short conversation with Filmmaker Siji Awoyinka.
Synopsis:When a young London-born Nigerian music fan makes the shocking discovery that many Nigerian musical icons don’t possess copies of their own recordings, he returns to Lagos to re-record them. This film chronicles the music from juju to Afrobeat and everything in between and its parallels to Nigeria’s socio-political evolution from the colonial 1950s through the nationalist movement and independence in the ’60s. Rare archival footage colors this performance-rich tour through the history of the nation’s music.
Filmmaker Bio:Siji Awoyinka is a multidisciplinary aural and visual storyteller. Born in the UK to Nigerian parents, he spent much of his early childhood in Lagos and London before coming to the US to further pursue his musical ambitions. His music fuses elements of Soul, Jazz, Highlife, Afrobeat and Gospel music with traditional Yoruba rhythms drawn from his rich ancestral background. His critically acclaimed musical works, among them; God-given (BBE 2004), AdeSIJI (IVY 2008) and Home Grown (IVY 2014), have found appreciative audiences worldwide and continue to garner praise.
Festivals & Awards

Official Selection, Sheffield Docs (2020)
Official Selection, DOC NYC (2020)
Official Selection, INEDIT, Barcelona (2020)
Commendation Award, RAI Film Festival (2021)
Official Selection, Blackstar Film Festival US (2021)
Official Selection, Africa Film Festival, Koln, Germany (2021)
Official Selection, Trinidad & Tobago International Film Festival (2021)
Africa in Motion Film Festival (2021) Opening Film
Audience Award - Best Sounds Feature, Indie Memphis (2021)

Summer Music Series
2026-08-07 18:30 - 20:30 | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
The annual free outdoor concert series takes place at Restoration Plaza from June to September. A celebrated Bed-Stuy community tradition, the Summer Music Series brings together live music, dance, spoken word, and cultural performances produced and curated by Hollis King.
Featuring performances of jazz, R&B, hip-hop, soul, and more, with stellar artists from the neighborhood and beyond.

This Friday, August 7, Flavor Kings Taco will be on site! Come hungry.

Black Joy Film Fest: NEGRITA: Racially Black, Ethnically Latina
2026-08-13 18:30 - 20:30 | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
Come join us at the Black Joy Film Fest, for a celebration of Black excellence and uplifting stories on the big screen!

Come join us for a night of celebration and empowerment at the Black Joy Film Fest screening of the documentary NEGRITA: Racially Black, Ethnically Latina.
SYNOPSIS
NEGRITA, the debut documentary film from director Magdalena Albizu, interrogates the cultural prejudice and presumptions surrounding the lives of Afro Latina women in America. Albizu, a self-described negrita, explores an unconscious ideology of anti-Blackness in which both American and Latino cultures perpetuate a false narrative of Black as undesirable otherness. Through family pictures, childhood videos, and frank conversations, NEGRITA uses the director’s own personal history to illuminate the larger tapestry of shared experiences throughout the Black and Latin community. Hand in hand with women from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Honduras, and Panama, Albizu and her subjects collectively confront their own Black identities, empowering themselves as Afro Latinas.84mins | Directed by Stanley Nelson | 2025
Pack your lawn chair, bring the family, grab your favorite snacks, and settle in for an evening of film, and community under the summer sky.

Billie's Black Arts Initiative 2026 Showcase
2026-08-14 17:00 - 18:30 | The Billie Holiday Theatre, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
Get ready to be blown away by the incredible talent of our students at the Billie’s Black Arts Initiative (BBAI) 2026 Student Showcase!

Join us at The Billie Holiday Theatre for a night of talent and creativity.
BBAI’s summer acting intensive is grounded in the history and theater practices that emerged from the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. This year, the students will perform scenes from a variety of plays, including monologues and dialogues.
This year’s participating students are Nii Adu, Sadi Bimwala, Genevieve Ngosa Daniels, G Davis, Ajani Russell, Charlie Sharp, and Nailah Sweeting.
This event is open to friends, family, and the public!

Summer Music Series
2026-08-14 18:30 - 2026-08-21 20:30 | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
The Summer Music Series brings together live music, dance, spoken word, and cultural performances.

Featuring performances of jazz, R&B, hip-hop, soul, and more, with stellar artists from the neighborhood and beyond.
AUG 14, 2026

TAI ALLEN
JOY BROWN
STANLEY BANKS

The Summer Music Series is a bi-weekly concert featuring performances of jazz, R&B, Hip Hop, Soul and more!

SummerFest 2026: Skylight Open
2026-08-20 18:30 - 20:30 | The Billie Holiday Theatre, United States
An electric blend of adventurous spoken word, musical, and movement-based artists.

Launched in 2018, Skylight Open is The Billie’s monthly music and spoken word series featuring cutting-edge movement-based Brooklyn-based talent.

Made possible through the generous support of our partners:
A.R.T. New York • Con Edison • The Cowles Charitable Truste Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation • Ford Foundation • Howard Gilman Foundation • The J.L. Greene Art Access Fund | The Kresge Foundation • Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund • Lily Auchincloss Foundation • Lucille Lortel Foundation • Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand • Tiger Baron Foundation | Mosaic Network and Fund in The New York Community Trust• Universal Music Group/Task Force for Meaningful Change • The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs | Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation • The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable

Summer Music Series
2026-08-21 18:30 - 20:30 | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
The Summer Music Series brings together live music, dance, spoken word, and cultural performances.

Featuring performances of jazz, R&B, hip-hop, soul, and more, with stellar artists from the neighborhood and beyond. The lineup on August 21 includes:

LAFAYETTE HARRIS
HASAN BAKR
YACOUBA SISSOKO

Black Joy Film Fest: Michael
2026-08-27 18:30 - 20:30 | Restoration West Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216, Brooklyn, NY, 11216, US
Michael is the cinematic portrayal of the life and legacy of one of the most influential artists the world has ever known.

Come join us for a night of celebration and empowerment at the Black Joy Film Fest screening of the 2026 film, Michael.
SYNOPSIS
Discover the story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music, tracing his journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world, highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career.
127 min | 2026
Starring: Jaafar Jackson, Juliano Valdi, Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Larenz Tate
Pack your lawn chair, bring the family, grab your favorite snacks, and settle in for an evening of film, and community under the summer sky.
