Beyond Boundaries : TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing

On October 29th we welcome director and founder of Philadelphia’s Scribe Video Center, Louis Massiah, with the award-winning film, TCB - THE TONI CADE BAMBARA SCHOOL OF ORGANIZING (Louis Massiah & Monica Henriquez, 2025). The film focuses on an iconic figure in the pantheon of Black feminists: an influential writer, filmmaker and cultural worker who inspired a generation of artists to dedicate themselves to community empowerment.  The film is structured as a series of lessons on cultural organizing gleaned from Bambara’s life and shared by her friends, colleagues and students.

Louis Massiah is a documentary filmmaker and the founder of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia. He has developed production methodologies that assist first time makers author their own stories, including the Precious Places Community History project, a collection of 150 documentaries; Muslim Voices of Philadelphia; The Great Migration - A City Transformed, and The Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets. Massiah’s documentaries include The Bombing of Osage Avenue, W.E.B. Du Bois – A Biography in Four Voices,Cecil B. Moore, two films for the Eyes on the Prize IIseries, A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown and TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing. 

Beyond Boundaries Screening & Discussion Series is a distinctive program at Buffalo State that has been running since 2014.  This annual, six-part film series is organized around categories of diversity including, but not limited to race, gender, class, sexuality, and abilities, with an emphasis on intersectionality.  It creates an opportunity for open dialogue on social justice issues among college students, staff, faculty and members of the greater Western New York community. 

Beyond Boundaries is sponsored by the Office of Equity and Campus Diversity, the Communication Department, and the Burchfield Penney Art Center.  All screenings are held in Burchfield Penney Art Center and are free and open to the public.

The series is curated by Professors Ruth Goldman and Meg Knowles