Play, Jankunu Play

Includes a post-screening discussion moderated by José Francisco Ávila

Directed by Oliver N. Greene, Play, Jankunu Play focuses on the wanaragua, a processional that blends African, European, and Native American traditions. Every December, dancers adorn themselves in colorful masks and costumes to both satirize former colonial oppressors, and symbolically affirm their own cultural identity.

About the Speaker

José Francisco Ávila was born in the Garifuna village of Cristales, and grew up in the city of La Ceiba in Honduras. He is the president and co-founder of the Garifuna Coalition USA, Inc, which advocates for the improvement of the social, economic, political, and cultural conditions of New York’s Garifuna Community. Ávila has produced and promoted Garifuna-American Heritage Month in New York for the past seven years.