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