FREE | Registration Required 
Feb. 5th, March 5th, and April 2nd

Join us for a three-part book club series exploring James Baldwin’s The Devil Finds Work.

Baldwin’s personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also an appraisal of American racial politics. Offering a look at racism in American movies and a vision of America’s self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin considers such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist.

Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained and shaped us. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.

Discussion is facilitated by Dr. Randi Gill-Sadler, Dr. Tyler Bunzey, , and Dr. de’Angelo Dia.

Dr. Randi Gill-Sadler is a scholar and teacher of 20th-century African American and Afro-Caribbean women’s literature, U.S. Empire, and Black feminist theory. Her research examines representations of U.S. imperialism in Black women’s writing and explores how Black feminist literary traditions critique African American participation in and resistance to U.S. empire.

Her book manuscript revisits the Black Women’s Literary Renaissance, examining writers such as Paule Marshall, Gloria Naylor, June Jordan, and Toni Cade Bambara to reveal their critiques of inclusion, power, and belonging. Dr. Gill-Sadler’s teaching reflects these interests through courses on Black feminist literature and theory, African American literature and U.S. Empire, the Black Arts Movement, and protest and rebellion in African American literature and film. Influenced by the writers she studies, her pedagogy centers expansive approaches to scholarship, collaboration, and critical engagement.

Dr. Tyler Bunzey is an educator and culture worker based in Charlotte, NC. After receiving his PhD in English and comparative literature from UNC Chapel Hill in 2021, he served as the associate professor and program coordinator of cultural studies at Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte’s only HBCU. As he built up the cultural studies program on campus, he had a particular eye on developing programming that preserves the integrity and rigor of humanities education while responding to changing markets and changing needs of the twenty-first century student. His work has followed that aim. In addition to his work at JCSU, Tyler has worked as a freelance journalist for CLTure Magazine, the Queen City Nerve, and SuperEmpty. Additionally, he manages Nia J, a rising voice in the Charlotte pop scene. Tyler’s goal is that all of his work—academic or otherwise—fosters a strong connection between educational institutions and the arts.

Dr. de’Angelo Dia serves as Director of Education & Community Engagement at IPH, where he develops film-centered programs, public discussions, workshops, and community partnerships that connect cinema with civic dialogue and creative expression. With more than two decades of experience as an educator, his scholarship and creative practice draw upon Black liberation theology, Gullah cultural traditions, Southern Gothic literature, and comic mythology.