GUEST OF HONOR at the International Booklover’s Burlesque Festival

Join me at the International Booklover's Burlesque Festival from April 13-16, 2023 in Portland Oregon. The festival is an annual celebration of literary and performing arts, highlighting burlesque, boylesque, and draglesque artists from around the world and some of your favorite literary pieces and some you have never heard before.  The four-day festival takes place …

Virtual class: My Grandma Was an Exotic Dancer?!

Title: My Grandma Was an Exotic Dancer?! Presented by: Leslie Cunningham Class Description: A look at early Black Burlesque through a glimpse into the lives of the Bates Sisters, three brown-skin showgirls who helped innovate exotic dance from the American carnival stage. Created for the Harlem in Havana Project: Burlesque Education Series. Learn more and …

The Flavor of Filmmaking: Black Southern Filmmakers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=motN1O8--Sg From Theta Chapter of Gamma Xi Phi - Theta Chapter of Gamma Xi Phi, the fraternity for artists, presents a virtual panel discussion featuring three North Carolina-based filmmakers. The event highlights panelists Leslie Cunningham, Rukiya Shanteel, and Kimberly Knight, who discussed both the art and the craft of their work. The artists’ projects involved …

SLIPPAGE @ Duke University Fall Series presents JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana.

Sunday, August 29 at 3pm the SLIPPAGE @ Duke University 2021 Fall Series presents the first two parts from Durham-based creator, Leslie Cunningham’s new documentary film series “JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton's Harlem in Havana”. Slippage@Duke is directed by Thomas F. DeFrantz at the Rubenstein Arts Center. All events will be in the SLIPPAGE lab, …

SUPER STUDS, BROWN SKIN SHOWGIRLS AND CHALLENGING IDENTITIES: MY ARTIST JOURNEY.

From making film to writing songs to painting on canvas to publishing TRIBES magazine, I am at peace in the world when I am creating. An artist and documentary filmmaker, I come from a family of talented artists and musicians from Los Angeles, CA. As a kid, all I ever wanted to do was go …

JIG SHOW!? Brown-Skinned Showgirls, One Legged Tappers, and a Lucumi Ritual Dance. Celebrating Black History.

New documentary film series shines a spotlight on a little-known African American subculture and the unknown pioneers who helped shape Black and Cuban entertainment during Jim Crow. Watch Part One in Celebration of Black History Month! DURHAM, N.C. - Feb. 22, 2021 - PRLog -- Step right up, folks! The last remaining great Black troupers are finally telling …

HAYTI! The Hippest Black Film Festival in the South Just Got Better!

By Leslie Cunningham, filmmaker and TRIBES Team If you haven’t noticed, Durham’s Hayti Heritage Film Festival (HHFF) is bringing something fresh and new this year and Bull city film lovers are taking notice! I’m a longtime fan of the annual festival which is one of the longest-running Black film festivals in the country. I’m damn sure proud of …

JIG SHOW HITS FRESH DOCS, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, DURHAM, NC!

Friday, September 22nd @ 7 pm, Full Frame Theater, American Tobacco Campus, Blackwell St., Durham, North Carolina 27701  The Center for Documentary Studies and the Southern Documentary Fund are pleased to present a free screening of JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana, a feature documentary film by Leslie Cunningham who takes viewers on a tour of her grandfather’s Black and Cuban traveling show that …

Dancinema presents a Work in Progress Screening of JIG SHOW, July 29, DC area

  The Capitol Dance & Cinema Festival's feature film series continues Saturday, July 29 @ Dance Exchange with a work-in-progress screening of the coming feature documentary film, JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton's Harlem in Havana by filmmaker Leslie Cunningham. 7:00pm - 7:30pm Harlem in Havana Photo Exhibition and Event Seating  7:30pm - 8:30pm Film Screening Q &A/ Feedback …