This year five African films will be premiering at the festival, a milestone that not only spotlights the continent’s vibrant storytelling but also signals a major leap for African voices on the international stage.
In 2023, the CDC reported that two-thirds of all chronic hepatitis B cases worldwide are acquired in childhood, mostly through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). This invisible epidemic threatens generations, with hepatitis B alone affecting more than 60 million people in Africa.
Thirty-six years have passed since Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing first scorched cinemas in summer 1989. As of July 2025, its Brooklyn heat, urgent questions, and kinetic color remain intensely relevant. From Oscar debates to TikTok discussions and block parties packed with old-timers and Gen Z, the film endures, not just as a landmark of American cinema but as an annual rite and point of national conversation.
For fans across Lagos, Atlanta, Accra, and Los Angeles, seeing Mr Terrific’s arrival in Superman 2025 is a huge deal. A genius Black superhero, a leader, innovator, and symbol of “Fair Play,” is finally getting his due.
Whether you’re an avid collector, a gallery-goer, or simply hungry for fresh artistic voices, you’ll leave each show with your perspective expanded and your soul stirred. In the sections below, you’ll find 5 artists whose practices span portraiture, abstraction, figuration, and beyond plus direct links to their portfolios or Instagram feeds, so you can check them out. Ready to discover your next favorite painter? Let’s go.
A Philadelphia native born January 2, 1898, Sadie Alexander shattered racial and gender barriers to become the first Black woman to earn a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania (1927) and became the first Black woman to practice law in the state. Now, nearly a century after her academic triumphs, the city is poised to install a bronze homage, amplifying conversations around representation in public monuments.
The summer of 2025 arrives amid a swell of momentum for Black filmmakers. The summer festival circuit has already spotlighted groundbreaking voices from Zambian auteur Rungano Nyoni to Nigerian epic fantasy at Cannes while streaming giants and studios roll out major releases directed by and starring Black talent.
160 years after the first Emancipation Day, the city’s Juneteenth traditions are alive and resplendent, anchored by the museum’s annual celebration, a testament to Black excellence in Philadelphia and beyond.
The vast halls of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris are hauntingly silent this spring. One prominent case, a towering wooden talking drum known as the Djidji Ayokwê, has just been removed. Its empty plinth is a stark emblem of centuries-old colonial plunder and the long road toward restitution.
Long before formal nursing schools or medical licenses, Black women brought life into the world under the shadow of slavery. Enslaved midwives labored in cramped cabins, relying on generations of oral knowledge to care for mothers and infants alike.
