Queer Black Films: Looking for Langston and Two Films by Hayat Hyatt

An intergenerational pairing of film and video works explores black queer inheritance and desire through Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston and two films by Hayat Hyatt. 

Isaac Julien’s Looking for Langston (1989) is a lyrical meditation on Langston Hughes and other black queer figures from the Harlem Renaissance. Filmmaker Hayat Hyatt will also present two of his films: Villanelle (2015), which blends documentary, poetry, and found footage to delve into the history of the AIDS crisis and its impact on black gay men living in New York City; and Structures of Feeling: Other Countries (2019). Hyatt, a video artist, filmmaker, and writer who was born in Detroit, Michigan and is now based in New York City, will join us for the screening.

To see the full list of Stonewall 50 programs taking place in branches, visit nypl.org/stonewall50

Major support of the Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50 exhibition and related programming is provided by The New York Community Trust, Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney, and the TD Charitable Foundation and TD Bank. Additional support is provided by Time Warner and the Magnus Hirschfeld Endowment Fund.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, Jonathan Altman, and Miriam and Ira D. Wallach.

ASL interpretation and real-time (CART) captioning available upon request. Please submit your request at least two weeks in advance by emailing accessibility@nypl.org.