ABSTRACT
As a reconstruction of the Harlem Cultural Festival from archival video footage, Summer of Soul links the 1969 concerts to the time of its making, 2021, a time charged with renewed anti-racist activism. This chapter analyzes the construction of “now time” in the film through the lenses of Walter Benjamin’s historiography, Afro-futurism, and Kara Keeling’s theory of Black historical temporalities. The documentary’s inclusion of engaged audience members, along with their fragmentary memories of the event, pushes the question of experiential time to the forefront. In conjunction with the high-level, dynamic musical performances, amnesia plays against a mythic time of solidarity and a history of violence and struggle. The chapter argues that the future anterior of Summer of Soul is constructed through its “lost and found” back story and its unique fusion of Black music, digital editing, and nonlinear temporality.
