Happy Lunar New Year! The DIA welcomes back the Michigan Youth Lion Dance Team to perform a traditional Chinese Lion Dance, chase away evil spirits and bring good luck and longevity for the coming months. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon, an auspicious sign symbolizing known for its health, energy, bravery and trust.

This student team is based in southeastern Michigan and will also perform on drums and gongs in the DIA’s Great Hall. 

Use a variety of drawing and collage materials as well as stamps and stencils to design and make your own movie poster. Create something new for your favorite film, or invent a new movie!

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience necessary. All supplies provided. For ages 6 and up (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult).
 

(USA/1933—directed by Dudley Murphy)  

The Emperor Jones is an early sound film based on Eugene O’Neill’s groundbreaking 1920 theater work. The story follows a Black Pullman porter accused of murder, who evades prison by escaping to a remote Caribbean island where he sets himself up as the titular emperor.

The play toured New York and London in 1925 with a young Paul Robeson in the lead, delivering searing performances that made him an international star. The film adaptation — Robeson’s most important screen role — was made outside the prevailing restrictions of the Hollywood studio system by avant-garde director Dudley Murphy (Ballet Mécanique).

Had it come out a year later, O’Neill’s transgressive themes on race and critiques of colonialism would have been censored by the puritanical Motion Picture Production Code. (72 min.) 

Made prior to the implementation of the Motion Picture Code, The Emperor Jones remains a potent parable about power, exploitation, and race. This original, uncensored version of the film includes language, racial epithets and cultural characterizations that may be offensive and disturbing to viewers today, as they were in 1933.

This screening will be introduced by Sam White, founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare in Detroit, who will discuss the legacy of Paul Robeson’s performance and the connection to Eugene O’Neill’s original stage production of The Emperor Jones.

This program is part of a companion series of film and music events presented in celebration of Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971, on view at the Detroit Institute of Arts Feb. 4–June 23, 2024. Regeneration is organized by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.   

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, revered Detroit musicians and mentors Wendell Harrison (clarinet and tenor saxophone) and Pamela Wise (piano) will perform in Kresge Court from noon until 3 p.m.

Free with museum admission. 

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience necessary. All supplies provided. For ages 6 and up (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult).
 

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience necessary. All supplies provided. For ages 6 and up (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult).

Create a pencil drawing to take home while taking a closer look at the collection. No experience necessary. All supplies provided. For ages 6 and up (children ages 12 and younger should be accompanied by an adult).
 

Detroit-based textile artist Najma Ma’at Wilson will demonstrate how to make stitched collages. Participants will use basic stitching techniques with needles, thread, and a variety of interesting fabrics. Materials are provided.

Ma’at’s love of fiber arts was inspired by her mother. She has a degree in fiber design from the Center for Creative Studies, and a master’s degree in education from Boston College. She taught for 20 years in locations as close as Cass Technical High School and as far as Cotonou Benin, West Africa.

After retiring, Ma’at and a lifetime friend co-owned Detroit Fiber Works for 8 years, selling and showing works of local Detroit artists and providing a space for community conversations until 2020. She is returning to creating her own work from her home studio.

Fold, snip, unfold, snowflake! Bring the beauty of winter indoors as you learn to make old-fashioned paper snowflakes. No experience necessary. All supplies provided. Free with admission.