AJASS: Pioneers of the Black is Beautiful Movement Film Screening & Discussion

The African Jazz-Art Society Studios (AJASS) was founded in 1956 by a group of four

talented creatives: Elombe Brath, Kwame Brathwaite, Bob Gumbs, and Chris Acemandese Hall.

Inspired by the writings of activist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, and his protégé, Carlos

Cook of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement (ANPM), AJASS was a collective of artists,

playwrights, designers, musicians, and other Black creatives who sought to produce and

promote their own work. Elombe Brath said that one of AJASS’s primary purposes was to

“spread the idea of Black unity through appreciation of self, beauty of self — and to establish a

Black standard."

Dente’s documentary chronicles the journey of AJASS from its start in the South Bronx, where

they first hosted jazz concerts, to Harlem where their projects expanded helping to shape the

visual landscape of the second Harlem Renaissance in the process. It features commentary

from several prominent voices on the impact of AJASS and the Grandassa Models, a modeling

group created by AJASS for Black women, aiming to challenge white beauty standards.