This canvas tote was created in collaboration with the Academy Museum's exhibition Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898 -1971, which runs from February 4 – June 23, 2024 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. This exhibition honors the legacy of African American filmmakers and actors from the dawn of cinema, through the golden age, and into the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement.
The front of the tote has an image of Something Good—Negro Kiss which shows off smartly dressed vaudeville performers Gertie Brown (1878–1934) and Saint Suttle (1870–1932) in what might be the earliest example of African American on-screen intimacy. Discovered in 2017 at the University of Southern California film archives and subsequently added to the National Film Registry, the film is purportedly a parody of an even shorter 1896 film called The Kiss, produced for Edison and featuring a white couple. The back of the tote has the name of the exhibition.
Made of 100% cotton canvas.
