Talk | Recording a ‘Green Book’ Journey

Join journalist Alvin Hall and photographer Jonathan Calm for a special presentation of their 2016 BBC Radio 4 documentary The Green Book, expanded and amended to include additional research, audio, and photographs. Their trip was inspired by Victor Hugo Green’s revolutionary travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book, published annually between 1936 and 1967.

To collect material for their documentary, Hall and Calm (along with producer Jeremy Grange) set off on a road trip from Tallahassee, Florida (near Hall’s hometown), to Ferguson, Missouri, following the historic Civil Rights Route. Hall and Calm visited many towns and sites along their route that had been featured in the Green Book, which helped black travelers locate safe and welcoming businesses during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation. Bearing witness to everyday individuals, historic sites, and remnants of a not-too-far-gone era, Hall and Calm’s work is an informative and moving account of the historical and contemporary conditions of travel, safety, and justice for people of color in America.

In their presentation of the documentary and other works at MAD, Hall and Calm will share additional audio and images collected during their road trip, as well as subsequent work and research exploring related subject matter. A slide-show presentation of Calm’s recent body of photographs, African-American Automobility: The Dangerous Freedom of the Open Road, will accompany the audio, and both Hall and Calm will participate in a post-presentation Q&A.