The Art Theater Co-op is honoring the passing of Muhammad Ali with a screening of Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings. The film will be followed by a Q&A with PhD candidate Augustus Wood.
This event takes place on Monday, June 13 at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are only $5.
About the film and speaker:
Leon Gast’s now-classic documentary on the “Rumble in the Jungle”—Muhammad Ali’s triumphant Kinshasa fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman—took more than two decades to finish. By the time of completion, it had become a reflection on the responsibilities and demands of fame, a snapshot of a moment when black Americans were starting, partly thanks to Ali’s example, to embrace their African heritage en masse, and a hymn to Ali’s mesmerizing, canny presence outside the ring. With commentary by Spike Lee and Norman Mailer and appearances by B.B. King, The Seekers, and James Brown—seen here greeting Ali at the airport, hanging out with Don King, and, in one scene, turning to the camera and making a passionate appeal for black empowerment. (1996, Leon Gast, 84 min, PG)
Augustus Wood is a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at the University of Illinois originally from Atlanta, GA. He is former co-president and current officer of the Graduate Employees Organization, a member of the North End Breakfast Club, and co-host of the World Labor Hour on WEFT Community Radio. He wrote his Masters Thesis on Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, and black athletes in the black community.