Reel Truth: Portrait of Ailey Presented by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights invites you to a special screening of Portrait of Ailey on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, from 6:30–8:30 PM, with doors opening at 6:00 PM.

Through rare archival footage, intimate interviews, and the enduring language of movement, Portrait of Ailey explores how Ailey’s work emerged from the lived realities of Black life in America. Shaped by faith, trauma, beauty, discipline, and survival, the film asks what it meant for a Black artist from the Jim Crow South to build an institution that would carry Black stories onto the world’s most prestigious stages.

Following the screening, join us for a live interview and audience Q&A with Alicia Graf Mack, Artistic Director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and former Ailey star dancer. Together, we will engage with Portrait of Ailey not simply as art, but as testimony.

Admission is $6 for members and $12 for non-members.