SAN ANTONIO – You can celebrate Black History Month by watching a new two-part documentary called “Living in my Skin,” which features stories and perspectives of 33 Black men in San Antonio.
Brandon Logan, co-executive director and featured in the documentary, joined Leading SA on Sunday to discuss his role in the film and its importance.
“I think considering the aftermath, the tragic loss of George Floyd, the executive producer, myself, along with national artists, Lionel Sosa had a conversation about what to do,” Logan said. “I know on my end, I was receiving numerous calls from white male and white female colleagues.”
Logan, who grew up in San Antonio and is a leader at Urban Capital Partners, an area nonprofit working to help education efforts in San Antonio’s inner city, said those initial conversations sparked the idea for the documentary.
“One of the things that I realized is that I could not make a contribution in isolated spaces every single day. That became very exhausting when you consider the effects the George Floyd killing had on me,” Logan said. “But I realized that I had a role to play in creating a directional path for my friends that were non-Black in figuring out how they can contribute.”
Logan said he wanted to identify young and older men that could share their truth and story of what it’s like growing up in San Antonio and living in America as a Black man.
The documentary’s release was broken into two parts, both open to the public this month.
“I think that we are on the precipice of making real change, considering the documentary, the level of engagement and the responses that we received,” Logan said. “I think we’re starting to live up to the original belief system that Carter G. Woodson operated when he established Negro History Week, which was the precursor for Black History Month.”
Logan said that Woodson realized that African Americans’ stories were told at a much slower rate than other races in this country and wanted to educate the community and reduce racism.
“Black History Month serves as that vehicle when there’s a level of willingness to engage in these amazing contributor’s stories, to realize that this is American history, not just Black history,” Logan said. “So, I think we are on the edge of delivering this new wave of information when we see legislation passed with the mentions of African American studies in schools; that is our best bet, to really diversify student learning so individuals can recognize and identify if you are non-white about the history that is being told in our classrooms.”
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