Producer and Filmmaker Louise Dente Celebrates the African Diaspora

Fern Gillespie
For over 35 years, Louise Dente has balanced a career as a school educator and administrator, television public affairs producer and documentary filmmaker. Earning education degrees from Baruch College (BA) and Queens College (MA), she was inspired to incorporate Afrocentric culture in her work and launched a youth program the Joy of Performing Workshop and Ensemble in the 1980s.

For 17 years, she’s been the host and producer of the popular four-time NY Association of Black Journalists Award-winning public affairs show “Cultural Caravan,” which celebrates the history and culture of Africans in America and the diaspora. She’s also produced documentaries “African American History and Hairtage” and “AJASS: Pioneers of the Black is Beautiful Movement.” She recently spoke with Our Time Press.

Why did you create the public affairs TV show Cultural Caravan?
It was a point where I was very concerned about the quality of the information being put out there in terms of people of African ancestry. I felt that it was very one-sided, very stereotypical and not representing our interests. We’re not a monolith. We have many voices, many opinions, and many ways of looking at life.

I felt that it was only putting out stereotypes. I was very frustrated by what I’d seen on TV and media. Rather than complaining about what I don’t see, I really wanted to be part of the solution. That’s when I really looked seriously about creating a media, creating some art form.

Your work as a filmmaker, the documentary “AJASS: Pioneers of the Black is Beautiful Movement,” focusing on Afrocentric culture in the 1960s, has been honored by, the Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, and earned nine film festival awards including global Mumbai and Cannes web. Why did you decide to explore the African Jazz-Art Society and Studios (AJASS)?
The documentary is focused on the founding of AJASS. Both Elombe Brath and his brother Kwame Braithwaite were cofounders along with others who were part of that group. It started in the Bronx originally to bring jazz to The Bronx. Then they met Carlos Cooks, who was ia protégé of Marcus Garvey.

They were impressed by Carlos Cooks who had a group of women with the Miss Natural Standard of Beauty, an annual contest for Black women in their natural state of beauty and wore Afrocentric clothing. The only way that they could compete was to have their hair in natural hairstyles. It inspired Elombe to form a group of models known as the Grandassa models, who would wear their hair in its natural state in celebration of African values and natural features.

He had nine models, which included Black Rose Nelmes and Helene Nomsa Brath, Elombe’s wife.
They toured the country. Black Rose Nelms was the first proprietor of a natural hairstyling business. She also just was renowned for Afros and Afrocentric hairdressing. Her clients were Angela Davis, Earl the Pearl Monroe, Cicely Tyson, Dizzy Gillespie. The documentary is about the founding of the Grandassa models and the impact.

What was it like interviewing Marcus Garvey’s son for Cultural Caravan?
“I had the opportunity to interview Julius Garvey, one of the late Marcus Garvey’s sons. He had wanted us to talk about a project. Even though his father always wanted to go to Africa, he never made it there.

So they wanted to symbolically take a bust of Marcus Garvey to Ethiopia. They were trying to raise enough money to tet that off the ground. So, we had a conversation with him about his project and what he was trying to do. And he’s still trying to get his father’s name to be pardoned, because, you know, Garvey was deported for some charges that they believe was trumped up. His son is in his 80s, probably pushing 90 right now. He’s been trying to get his father pardoned for last couple of years.

You are an admirer of ABC News legend Gil Noble, who hosted and produced the legendary talk show “Like It Is.” How did he inspire you?
Cultural Caravan stands on the shoulders of the late great Gil Noble. I had the pleasure of meeting Gil on several occasions and before his passing. Knowing the struggles he confronted ABC at the time and just wanting to support the work he was doing, which was really celebrating our experiences as people of African ancestry. So when we do things, we always consider and try to do the best work we can. Gil Noble was honest. He was a very humble man.

He never put words in anyone’s mouth. He was like the term “Tell It Like It Is.” He let his audience, his guests, tell it like it was from their perspectives. So, he let them talk about what was going on in the community. Good, bad, or and or otherwise. introduced us to several acclaimed scholars like Dr. Ben, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.

All of them became famous because they were all on Gil Noble’s show. Gil Noble put a lot of people on the map. He’s got into a lot of controversy with his employers, but that wasn’t the issue for him. His mission was getting the truth out there.

You recently saluted three Black women over age 90, who are history makers—Dr. Adelaide L. Sanford, first woman and first African-American to serve as vice chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents; Bessie Jackson, New York State Director of ASALAH , who successfully advocated for a New York State holiday commemorating the abolition of slavery in New York and Queen Black Rose Nelmes, the sole surviving original Grandassa model and the first person to specialize in the styling of natural hair. What impressed you about these elders?
Their impact and longevity. Sometimes when people think about age, people think they just sit and knit and just wait till the maker. These women are defying that. They’re working up to the very last moment. They are not letting their age or even their ailments deter them from fighting their own fights. I call them “warrior women.”

Cultural Caravan is broadcast weeknights on Sunday morning on Sundays on 5:30 to 6:00 on NYC media channels 25 and 22. It’s also available on YouTube.