Storyville: Bumpa by Kayla Naomi Watkins

Bumpa (USA, Work in Progress) by Kayla Naomi Watkins

This documentary will explore the Afro-Caribbean dance, ‘whining’ alongside the practice of twerking to analyze respectability politics, pressures to accommodate whiteness, and gendered criticism of sexual expression within the Black diaspora. Using archival footage of West African dance, expert opinion from dancing and gender studies professors, and the active participation of partygoers in a dance experiment, I will paint the picture of the defiance, autonomy, and ancestral veneration intrinsic to these traditional movement styles.

Kayla Naomi Watkins is a Baltimorean Trinidadian Documentarian based in Philly with a focus in media education and documentary production. Watkins’ work covers issues that impact Black, brown, working-class, and femme communities.