Louis Massiah

Louis Massiah, the 2010-11 Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change, speaks about the five-channel video installation at the President’s House site in Philadelphia that opened in December 2010. These dramatic vignettes look at the lives of the nine enslaved Africans brought to Philadelphia by George and Martha Washington during the country's first presidency (1790-1797) and the resistance of the free African American community, and explore the contradictions of freedom and slavery in establishing a new nation. Massiah is joined by Karen Warrington, member of the Project Oversight Committee and director of communications for U.S. Congressman Bob Brady; Lorene Cary, scriptwriter; Novella Nelson, actor; Beth Warshafsky, digital media painter/computer graphics art director; and W. Tre Davis, actor. Massiah is founder and director of the Scribe Video Center.