Sabaah Folayan

Sabaah Folayan combines nuance and optimism with cultural relevance to tell stories that inform, uplift, and engage audiences. She made her directorial debut at the Sundance Film Festival with the feature length documentary Whose Streets? Supported by Ford, MacArthur, and other foundations, and nominated for Peabody, Critic’s Choice, Gotham, and NAACP Image Awards, as well as numerous festival honors worldwide, the film chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, MO when Michael Brown Jr. was killed. Whose Streets? was distributed theatrically by Magnolia Pictures, broadcast for television by POV, and is now streaming on Hulu. Sabaah wrote the series finale of HBO’s Betty, a critically acclaimed comedy series about a crew of young female skateboarders in NYC. Her second feature documentary, Look at Me: XXXTENTACION, premiered at SXSW and is now streaming on Hulu. Following the film’s premiere, Sabaah took on the role of Interim Director of the Firelight Media Documentary Lab, which served BIPOC directors making their first or second feature documentary. Sabaah was born in Los Angeles and raised in Hawai'i. She graduated from Columbia University as a pre-medical student. The desire to work at a larger scale evolved into a unique storytelling practice that is informed by principles of behavioral science and social justice. Sabaah is a 2022 Pew Fellow and a 2023 Chicken & Egg Breakthrough awardee. She spends her time writing, directing, consulting, and sharing her personal ethos through speaking and mentorship.

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ABOUT Lani B. Supreme: Legacy

Trumpeter, composer, educator, and storyteller Lani B. Supreme (Jelani Akil Bauman) carries forward a musical legacy that began with his great-great-grandfather before emancipation. Driven by his family’s craft, Bauman’s music celebrates Black creative expression.

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