Black Arts Alliance Inc

Founded in 1998 by a group of artists and art patrons, the Black Arts Alliance (BAA) is a multi-disciplinary vehicle for the advancement of African American arts and culture. The mission is to serve as an advocate for the arts and artists, to nurture emerging and veteran artistic talent, and to develop new works in the performing, visual and literary arts.The organization’s signature events include the North Carolina Black Film Festival, a four-day juried competition of shorts, features, documentaries, animation and music videos. The film festival, which will celebrate its 21st season in 2024, attracts filmmakers from around the world and more than 1,200 film goers each year. The popular Poetry Jam series is held quarterly to standing room only crowds at the Cameron Art Museum and the Community Arts Center, with seated capacity of 260 people in both rooms. To expand the desire to promote the arts, in 2018 the Alliance added the Black Music Month series at the Cameron Museum Courtyard in an effort to showcase talent in the Cape Fear area and the celebration of African American music through different genres to include Motown, Gospel, Reggae, etc. Additionally, BAA met the challenge to keep the arts alive during the pandemic (COVID 19). In 2020 and 2021, the Alliance teamed up with UNCW for Curbside Cinema and with the New Hanover County NAACP for a special screening outside on the northside of Wilmington, NC to watch the film Black Panther.