Wanda's Picks Radio Special: Thomas Allen Harris

THOMAS ALLEN HARRIS joins me to talk about the National Broadcast of his work: THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. The Producer, Director Writer was raised in the Bronx and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. He is the founder and President Chimpanzee Productions, a company dedicated to producing unique audio-visual experiences that illuminate the Human Condition and the search for identity, family, and spirituality. Chimpanzee’s innovative and award-winning performance-based documentary films - VINTAGE – Families of Value, E Minha Cara/That’s My Face, and Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela - have received critical acclaim at International film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, FESPACO, Outfest, Flaherty and Cape Town and have been broadcast on PBS, the Sundance Channel, ARTE, as well as CBC, Swedish broadcasting Network and New Zealand Television. Mr. Harris’ video and installations – including Splash, Black Body, AFRO (is just a Hairstyle) Notes on a Journey Through The African Diaspora and ALCHEMY - have been featured at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, the Corcoran Gallery, Reina Sophia, London Institute of the Arts, Gwangju Biennale, and the Long Beach Museum of Art. Harris has received numerous awards and fellowships including a United States Artist Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, Rockefeller Fellowship, two Emmy nominations as well as Sundance Film Institute Directors Fellowships and a Tribeca Film Institute Nelson Mandela Award. A graduate of Harvard College and the Whitney Independent Study Program, Harris has taught at a variety of institutions including University of California San Diego where he received tenure as an Associate Professor of Media Arts. A published photographer, curator, and write, Mr. Harris lectures widely on the use of media as a tool for social change.