The Denver Gazette

COMPLETE HISTORY

BY JESSICA GIBBS The Denver Gazette

Jamieon Jamison- Gilmore plays tuba with the brass band during the grand opening of University of Colorado Boulder’s new Center for African and African American Studies on Wednesday on campus in Boulder. ‘Blaxplanation,’ a new History Colorado series by Dexter Nelson II, aims to more fully tell the story of Black history in Colorado.

In order to more fully tell the Black history story in Colorado, Dexter Nelson II knew he wanted to take a different approach.

“A lot of times the Black experience is reduced to slavery, and then Martin Luther King, and then Obama,” said Nelson II, History Colorado’s associate curator of African American history and cultural heritage.

When crafting the museum’s event series, “Blaxplanation,” he decided to talk about anything but. Last year’s inaugural season was a success, he said, and the series made its return this year with season two opening Saturday.

The first event included a screening of the documentary “The Holly,” followed by a panel comprised of the film’s subject, Terrance Roberts; its director, Julian Rubinstein; and producer donnie l. betts. The NAACP is sponsoring this year’s series.

The much-discussed documentary chronicles the story of Roberts, a former Bloods gang member who grew up in the Northeast Park Hill neighborhood of Denver, and his 2015 acquittal for shooting Bloods gang member Hasan “Munch” Jones. At the time of the shooting, Roberts was preparing to host a peace rally to continue his work as an anti-gang activist seeking to quell violence in the community.

The film and the accompanying book, “The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood,” delve into not only gang violence but myriad issues such as gentrification and police misconduct.

The screening was the first installment in an event lineup that includes another discussion about gang violence in north east Denver, but also talks about the Black community’s contribution to pop culture and a walking tour of local historic areas.

The series’ tagline, “Black History, From the Black Perspective, Beyond Slavery,” sums up the program’s mission, Nelson II said. That is, telling a history of the African diaspora that is not whitewashed or limited, he said, and telling it with the perspective of African Americans.

Creating a ‘safe space’

The inaugural season of Blaxplanation last year sought to tell more sto

ries and connect with the community, Nelson II said, ranging from programming about local artists to lessons on the Green Book — a guide identifying businesses that would safely serve African Americans during the segregation era.

Nelson II came up with the series’ name as a play on the term Blaxploitation — coined for the film era that emerged in the 60s and 70s which stereotyped African Americans on camera, but also afforded them new freedoms to work in the industry behind the camera, he said.

The series was partly born from History Colorado’s efforts to make inroads connecting with the state’s African American community, which had met resistance, Nelson II said.

“And so, we wanted to really have this series as kind of a space where we could just program and have stories about the African American experience, really with no restrictions,” he said.

At almost every Blaxplanation event held in 2022, an attendee told Nelson II they were grateful to learn History Colorado hosted programming like it, or told him “We see you seeing us, and we appreciate that,” he said.

This year is about building on that momentum and cementing History Colorado as a “safe space” to hold conversations, he said.

“We are not saying, ‘ Think this way or that way,’ or anything like that. We are saying, ‘ This is a very relevant conversation, let’s discuss it,’” he said.

The next installments in 2023 include a program about the North East Denver community’s response to gang violence on April 1 at the History Colorado Center.

The museum’s Engagement Coordinator for Black Communities Terri Gentry will lead a walking tour of the historic Welton Street and Five Points neighborhood on June 9 (the trek includes sampling off the menu of a Blackowned restaurant).

To wrap up, History Colorado partnered with Denver Film to dive into the series’ namesake, the Blaxploitation film era, with an August 18 screening of “Friday Foster” at the Sie Film Center. The film stars Pam Grier, a Colorado resident and prominent actor during the Blaxploitation days. The event will also include a conversation with editor Christopher Marlon about the Black community’s contributions to pop culture and film.

Debating ‘The Holly’

As lights came on, the Saturday crowd of roughly 100 gave “The Holly” two rounds of applause. They had laughed at moments of comedic relief. They sighed as the film revealed young men the director interviewed later died of violence. They grimaced, and buried heads in hands, at the description of a murdered 2-year-old child abuse victim’s injuries.

Despite the Saturday crowd’s warm reception, the film previously sparked division within the Park Hill community — with some saying it paints a one-dimensional portrait of the neighborhood as defined by gang violence.

Rubinstein addressed some of the brushback during the Saturday panel discussion, saying in part that it’s a small portion of the Black community seeking to discredit the work and that some of his critics had not read the book or seen the film.

Roberts, now one of 17 candidates to become Denver’s next mayor, said what he hopes people can learn from the film is that gang violence is a legitimate issue facing Denver and its youth. He spoke at length during the panel discussion about frustrations that stem from his life experiences highlighted in the film.

He is particularly exasperated by law enforcement using informants who are active gang members, lambasting it an inappropriate relationship that continues to harm the community, not solve its problems.

Roberts called programming like the Blaxplanation series needed, not just for Black communities but for all marginalized communities, he said, naming women’s rights, the Latino community, and the LGBTQIA community.

Being part of the 2023 series launch was an honor, he said.

“To make it from where I’ve been in life to being able to be at History Colorado and kicking off a series like this, with a story where I’m the protagonist, who could have ever imagined it,” he said.

In History Colorado engagement sessions with community members — which helped shape the Blaxplanation programming — Nelson II said staff clearly heard that some North East Denver residents do not like how their neighborhoods are being portrayed, and not just in “The Holly.”

The series’ inclusion of a walking tour and discussions about pop culture were in response to that, and an effort to include a range of topics beyond gang violence. The upcoming events will include alternative views, Nelson II said.

He encouraged critics of “The Holly” with questions about its inclusion in the series to contact History Colorado, whether it be by email or attending an event and asking questions.

“We want to know what they have to say, and we want to provide a space for them to say it,” he said.

‘A paradigm shift’

Gentry is the woman helping lead those engagement sessions for History Colorado and another force behind the Blaxplanation series as the museum’s engagement manager for Black communities. She joined the museum staff last year and also sits on the board of the Black American West Museum.

As a longtime admirer of producer donnie l. betts, and a Denverite with generational ties to north east Denver, Gentry was eager to see “The Holly.” She has lived in Clayton, Park Hill and North East Park Hill. Her grandparents lived in Whittier. Her great-grandfather ran his business in Five Points. Her loved ones also called Skyland home.

She loved growing up in the area. Friendships she made at 5 and 6 years old are still going strong. She comes from a long line of people who worked hard to better their community, she said, calling her parents and grandparents “warriors.”

Her father retired as a division chief for the Denver Police Department. Her mother fought to build her career within the white-male dominated Martin Marietta (before it became Lockheed Martin in 1995 after a merger), she said. Her great-grandfather was the first Black man to become a licensed dentist in Colorado.

“This community that I grew up in, and I am a part of, has some amazing people that were part of it,” she said. “I am still watching generationally the people who are my age and younger continuing that legacy.”

“The Holly” offered a transparent look at some experiences of local residents while including multiple perspectives, she said.

Her own life experiences drive her work as History Colorado’s engagement coordinator and in working on the Blaxplanation series, she said. Every day to Gentry is about celebrating her ancestors and telling her community’s story.

“The Blaxplanation series offers folks who are not familiar with our experiences a window into who we are, and I think it also helps to give voice to our community,” she said.

That’s important to her because she also sees efforts nationwide to “shut us down and silence us,” she said, citing examples like legislation seeking to ban certain curriculums about Black history taught from African American perspectives or laws aimed at diminishing voting rights, she said.

Her job is helping History Colorado to step up, she said, and include all of Colorado’s voices in telling the state’s history.

“It’s a matter of a paradigm shift,” Gentry said.

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2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/282192245134377

The Gazette, Colorado Springs