Directed by Rebecca Hall, English, 98 minutes, USA, 2021
Screen the film Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, based on the novel by Nella Larsen, on Netflix either on your own or at a virtual screening session on Friday, March 4 at 7:30 pm, then tune in to Zoom for this conversation with Professor Carla Kaplan (Northeastern University Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature; Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Professor of Cultures, Societies, and Global Studies at Northeastern University) and Professor Régine Michelle Jean-Charles (Northeastern University, Director of Africana Studies, Dean’s Professor of Culture and Social Justice, and Professor of Africana Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies). The dialogue will address the phenomenon of passing and themes of race, gender, and belonging. This event is part of the Women Take the Reel Film Festival (sponsored by the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality) and is open to the public. Register here to receive the link to the Zoom webinar.
Passing is a novel by American author Nella Larsen, first published in 1929. Set primarily in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s, the story centers on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield—and their increasing fascination with each other's lives. The film is based on the novel and is directed by Rebecca Hall, and stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson.
Panelists
Carla Kaplan is the Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature at Northeastern University, where, as the Founding Director of the university's Humanities Center, she created a conversational hub dedicated to diversity. She has held positions at Yale University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Illinois and also teaches writing through arts councils and writers' centers. Her most recent book Miss Anne In Harlem draws on her 30 years as a white scholar in Black studies to examine cultural crossovers.
Régine Michelle Jean-Charles is a Black feminist literary scholar and cultural critic who works at the intersection of race, gender, and justice. Her scholarship and teaching in Africana Studies includes expertise on Black France, Sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean literature, Haiti, and the diaspora. She is the author of Conflict Bodies: The Politics of Rape Representation in the Francophone Imaginary (Ohio State University Press, 2014), as well as the forthcoming Looking for Other Worlds: Black Feminism, Literary Ethics, and Haitian Fiction (University of Virginia Press) and A Trumpet of Conscience for the 21st Century: King’s Call to Justice (Orbis Press). She is also a regular contributor to media outlets like The Boston Globe, Ms. Magazine, WGBH, America Magazine, and Cognoscenti, where she has weighed in on topics including #metoo, higher education, and issues affecting the Haitian diaspora.