Rappers and gospel singers, on the streets and in their homes—Kevin Jerome Everson’s music from the edge of the allegheny plateau, screening online through January 8, 2019 as part of the Walkier’s Moving Image Commissions, presents different generations from the African American communities of Mansfield, Ohio, sharing their passions, their talents, and their messages of faith and ambition through music and gesture. Everson was inspired by William Klein’s The Little Richard Story (1980), a film that tell the story of the rock-and-roll icon’s life through the eyes and experiences of friends, family, and impersonators.

Deborah Stratman’s commissioned video work draws on several sources: unused footage shot by Barbara Hammer during a motorcycle trip to Guatemala in 1975, evocative sounds from Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), and Deren’s 1953 book Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. As the Walker’s Ruth Hodgins writes, Stratman’s Vever brings together three generations of women who separately, and now together, confront moments of vulnerability and disruption. Each filmmaker at different points in time finds herself questioning the integrity of her work and her intentions while searching for the poetics in her creative practice.