Dawn Flores
multidisciplinary artist & educator
KEITH NIXON JR.
Keith Nixon Jr.’s passion thrives on directing visual narratives spanning the spectrum of Black identity, giving particular focus to familial dynamics. Having a life-long exposure to visual media has inspired Nixon Jr.’s commitment to storytelling. The Surry, Virginia native followed in the footsteps of his father, who was a videographer, and his mother who was a thespian. Keith made a deeper academic commitment to his craft by attending Howard University, where he studied film as an MFA student. In 2019, he entered BET’s Blackhouse Foundation Fellowship Program, in conjunction with Sundance Film Festival.
His project, Funeral of A Nation reunited him with his hometown friend, famed GRAMMY award-winning songwriter Harold Lilly. Keith accessed a well of footage archived from the 1950s and '60s to compile a musical essay that shows the struggle and the progress of the Black experience in the United States of America.
“The beauty in sourcing the footage for Funeral of a Nation was getting a glimpse into the totality of blackness, particularly aspects of Black culture that are not readily available,” says Keith Nixon Jr.. He captured present day footage of Virginia’s cultural landmarks, including former protest sites of the Robert E. Lee memorial and Jefferson Davis monument.
“Being Black is not new. The footage supports this notion. It evoked a sense of pride, particularly at a time where there’s so much divisiveness and untruth concerning us as a people.” The road to freedom in America has been long travelled by Black and Brown people. The record of their movement’s struggle and progress, is well-documented, yet is always threatened by white-washing, or complete erasure. Funeral of a Nation keeps the memory alive.