Date & time
Friday, March 14, 2025
5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Films
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Mercy: A poetry cycle in motion
A film launch
Speaker(s)
Cornelius Eady, Philip Szporer, and Angélique Wilkie
Cost
Registration is required. Free tickets are available to Concordia community members on a first-come, first-served basis.
Organization
Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability
Contact
Where
J.W. McConnell Building
1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
J.A. De Sève Cinema
Accessible location
Yes
Angélique Willkie in Mercy. Photo credit: Somaye Farhan
Join us for the world premiere of Mercy, a short film produced by Philip Szporer's Mouvement Perpétuel based on the poetry cycle of esteemed African American poet Cornelius Eady and informed by the writing of Phillis Wheatley, the first published Black poet in the US. Featuring Concordia's own Angélique Willkie and Amara Barner, through the guidance of Eady, this film delves into the double-voiced discourses of a particular Black literary tradition as well as investigating issues of race, place, and identity. A central theme concerns the complication of the slave learning their captor’s language.
The 15-minute film will be followed by discussion and Q & A with Cornelius Eady, Angélique Wilkie, and Philip Szporer.
Note that this event is part of the 43rd International Festival of Films on Art.
Cornelius Eady, photo copyrighted by M. Thompson
Cornelius Eady is currently Professor of English and John C. Hodges Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From September 2021 to December 2022 he also served as interim Director of Poets House in New York City.
Eady published his first collection, Kartunes, in 1980. His second collection, Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (1985), was chosen as winner of the Academy of American Poets’ Lamont Poetry Award by Louise Glück, Charles Simic, and Philip Booth, bringing him widespread attention. He has since published eight other collections, including The Gathering of My Name (1991), nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Brutal Imagination (2001), a National Book Award finalist; and Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems (2008), nominated for an NAACP Image Award
In addition to his poetry, Eady has also written musical theater productions, collaborating with jazz composer Diedre Murray. The two worked together on Running Man, a roots opera libretto based on Eady’s poems that was named a 1999 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and Brutal Imagination, recipient of Newsday’s Oppenheimer Award in 2002. Eady is also a musician: he has performed with his literary band Rough Magic and the Cornelius Eady Trio, which whom he released the album Don't Get Dead: Pandemic Folk Songs. (June Appal Recording, 2021). He has also published five mixed-media chapbooks with accompanying CDs including, Book of Hooks (Kattywompus Press, 2013) and Singing While Black (Kattywompus Press, 2015).
With poet Toi Derricote, Eady founded Cave Canem, a beloved nonprofit organization that supports emerging Black poets via a summer retreat, regional workshops, prizes, event, and publication opportunities. In 2016, Eady and Derricote were honored with the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community on behalf of Cave Canem. Eady’s other honors include the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Philip Szporer
Philip Szporer is a Montreal-based filmmaker, writer, and lecturer. He has been immersed in the Canadian dance world for over 35 years. Currently, he teaches in the Department of Contemporary Dance department and at the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability at Concordia University. He served as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts (2000-2016). In 1999, he was awarded a Pew Fellowship (National Dance/Media Project), at the University of California, Los Angeles. And in 2010 he was the recipient of the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize awarded by the Canada Council of the Arts. He was recognized with a Distinguished Teaching Award from Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts in Spring 2016. In 2001, Philip along with Marlene Millar, co-founded the Montréal-based award-winning media arts production company, Mouvement Perpétuel. Together they have co-directed and co-produced many documentaries and short dance films to great acclaim. Their work is seen widely at festivals worldwide and at major events such as the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and a UNESCO tour of Latin America.
Angélique Wilkie
Angélique Willkie is Associate Professor in hte Department of Contemporary Dance, Concordia University Research Chair in Ecologies of B/black Performance, and Co-chair of the Concordia University Task Force on Anti-Black Racism. A multidisciplinary artist, Angélique began her dance training after completing a Master’s degree in Economics atMcGill University. A graduate of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, shesubsequently pursued a career in Europe where, over 25 years, she performedwith dance companies and independent projects throughout Europe, most notablyAlain Platel/Les Ballets C. de la B., Jan Lauwers/Needcompany, Sidi LarbiCherkaoui, Helena Waldmann and as a singer with the Belgian world-music groupZap Mama, bands Arno, dEUS, 7Dub, DAAU, Ez3kiel, and Zita Swoon Group, with jazzvocalist David Linx and contemporary composers Walter Hus, Kaat De Windt and Fabrizio Cassol.
This event is brought to you by the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability and the 43rd International Festival of Films on Art, with additional funding from the Departments of Communication Studies, Contemporary Dance, and English.