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Arts | Film Screening & Talkback

In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters

Join us for the screening of "In Search of Phillis Wheatley," a documentary about poet Phillis Wheatley Peters and her fight for autonomy, dignity, and survival in Revolutionary-era Boston.

Discover the story that history left out. In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters is a documentary driven by new research that uncovers a largely unknown chapter in the life of Phillis Wheatley Peters — America’s first Black published poet — revealing the remarkable love story between Phillis and John Peters, the free Black man she married in 1778.

Grounded in the groundbreaking archival work of Cornelia Dayton, the film brings newly unearthed documents to light, offering fresh insight into the couple’s fight for autonomy, dignity, and survival in Revolutionary-era Boston. Through the voices of leading scholars and poets — including Vincent Carretta, Nicole Aljoe, Manisha Sinha, Kabria Baumgartner, and Joanne Gabbin — the film reimagines Phillis not only as a literary icon, but as a woman who chose love, partnership, and resistance against extraordinary odds.

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Askew Pictures, founded in 2010 by Executive Producer Leslie Askew, builds on her two decades of work with major networks including CNN, where she produced the award-winning CNN Heroes. Originally from Houston and raised across the East Coast, Leslie studied Anthropology at Lawrence University before beginning her career in New York and later relocating to the Netherlands to launch the company.

Moderator Dr. Michelle Y. Gordon works in American literature, black studies, and cultural studies, with particular interests in the literary and cultural labors of the Left, civil rights history, black women’s studies, and cultural memory. After earning her PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Gordon went on to serve as assistant professor of English at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her scholarship focuses on 19th- and 20th-century American literature and print culture; her current project explores a radical literary and cultural history of Black Chicago, from the Great Depression through the rise of the Black Power era. 

Presented by Adult Services.

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