The Lines We Cross Fall Film Showcase

For over 250 years, African Americans have crossed literal and symbolic lines to
claim their lives, build vibrant communities, and challenge the nation to live up to its
highest ideals. Join the Lewis Museum this fall for a day of film screenings exploring
how African Americans have used their voices, determination and ingenuity to push
boundaries and shape the social, cultural, and political landscape of America. A post
film discussion with filmmakers will occur following most screenings.

Features Films include:
● 11 am – 12 pm | Harriet Tubman: Vision of Freedom (54 min) –
Considered one of the greatest freedom fighters in our nation’s history,
explore the nuanced portrait of Harriet Tubman, the “conductor” of the
Underground Railroad, who repeatedly risked her own freedom and life to
free others from slavery.
○ Note: October 2026 marks the 170th anniversary of the historic
“Tilly Escape” in October 1856, one of Harriet Tubman’s most
ingenious Underground Railroad rescue missions. Operating from
Canada, Tubman returned to Baltimore to rescue an enslaved
woman named Tilly at the request of Tilly’s fiancé.

● 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm | In Search of Phillis Wheatley Peters (35 minutes) –
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.
○ A post discussion with filmmaker Leslie Askews will follow this
screening.

● 1:35 pm – 2:30 pm | Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and
Lilian Thomas Burwell (26:48 min) – In the documentary “Kindred Spirits,“
produced by filmmaker Cintia Cabib, Lilian Thomas Burwell recounts the life
story of her aunt, artist and educator Hilda Wilkinson Brown, who influenced
Burwell’s own career as a teacher and abstract expressionist artist. Their

lives, artwork and sources of inspiration are presented against the backdrop
of a segregated society in which Black artists created their own venues to
publish and exhibit their work.
○ A post discussion with filmmaker Cintia Cabib will follow this
screening.

● 2:45 pm – 4:40 pm |A Life in Art: Through the Eye of Dr. Leslie King
Hammond (80 minutes) – The life and work of Dr. Leslie King Hammond, a
renowned art historian, educator, curator, and artist, reveal a side of the art
world rarely seen. Through studio visits and museum exhibitions, Dr.
Hammond has dedicated her life to helping artists of color find their path to
success with humor, ingenuity, and the extraordinary creativity that she and
her extended artistic family embody.
○ A panel discussion with Dr. Leslie King- Hammond and film
producers Ben Baker-Lee and Rassaan Hammond and to follow.
This program is associated with The Lines We Cross: 250 Years of Maryland
Forging America.