Bit Depth, Episode 2 | Songs and Justice
Friday, November 7, 2025
Door: 6:30 pm | Event start: 7 pm
Tickets below. $15 General / Free for Squeaky Wheel members.
Squeaky Wheel invites you to the second episode of Bit Depth, a new critical Squeaky variety show and event series! In Episode 2, Songs and Justice, we’ll be focusing on revolutionary figures, from Buffalo and beyond, whose impact has been felt in our community and across the world. The event will feature a screening of Frame-up! The Imprisonment of Martin Sostre (1974); a conversation with Geraldine Robinson, James Coughlin, and Brandon Schlia from the Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign; and a screening of John Akomfrah’s Seven Songs for Malcolm X (1995), introduced by Donte McFadden. All of this will be accompanied by a delicious spread (including vegan and gluten free options) by celebrated chef Kevin Thurston. Join us!
Bit Depth is Squeaky’s take on the Buffalo arts variety show. Each “episode” will feature a mix of films, artists, hackers, magicians, scientists, performances, mini-workshops, scholars and more, accompanied by a special spread of food by local celebrity chefs. Inspired in equal part by events such as Just Buffalo’s Big Night, Hallwalls’ Art+Science Cabaret, and Arika’s Episodes, Bit Depth are one-of-a-kind evenings featuring luminaries and rarities from around the world in critical and joyous engagement with media art in all that it can entail.
This event is supported by Teiger Foundation. Frame-up! The Imprisonment of Martin Sostre is courtesy of Cinema Guild. Seven Songs for Malcolm X is courtesy of Icarus Films. Special thank you to Pooja Rangan and Jesse Trussel.
Attendees: Please note that you cannot enter Tri-Main Center after 7:30 pm. Squeaky Wheel is located in Suite 310 of Tri-Main Center. Take the elevator to the third floor, and head left. Click here to see parking, transportation, and accessibility information. Food will feature vegetarian and gluten free options. The program will be in three parts, with short breaks in between. Members can email office@squeaky.org with the subject “Bit Depth” and we’ll reserve their spot within 24 hours. Not a member? Annual rates start at just $30 – sign up here.
Program
Steven Fischler Joel Sucher Howard Blatt, Frame-up! The Imprisonment of Martin Sostre
30 minutes, 16mm on digital video, 1974
Examining the case of Martin Sostre, a black Puerto Rican bookstore owner in Buffalo, New York who was framed on drug possession charges in 1967 and sentenced to prison, this film shows how the American justice system can be abused for purposes of political repression.
Talk | Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign, with Geraldine Robinson, James Coughlin, and Brandon Schlia
The Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign has been working intensively for years to clear the names of both Martin Sostre, and Geraldine Robinson who was arrested with Martin Sostre in 1967. We’ll be joined by Geraldine (Pointer) Robinson, who will be accompanied by James Coughlin and artist Brandon Schlia who will present a brief documentary on the work of the campaign. Donations for the campain will be accepted during the event, and books our friends at from Burning Books will be available.
“On the night of July 14, 1967, Geraldine Pointer (then Robinson) was helping Martin Sostre close the Afro-Asian Bookshop on Jefferson Avenue. The two met and started dating the previous year, soon after he opened the city’s first Black revolutionary bookstore. Sostre eventually opened two more stores, including the East-West Bookshop which Pointer managed. In the early morning of July 15th, plainclothes police and FBI agents raided the store on Jefferson and arrested the two, scapegoating Sostre as the cause of the city’s recent uprising.
Geraldine Robinson became one of the first Black women political prisoners of the Black Power era, yet her struggle remains virtually unknown today. Any dedication to the excavation and dissemination of Martin Sostre’s legacy must also acknowledge the importance of Geraldine’s struggle and the enduring impact of state repression on her and her family.” – Read more at the Martin Sostre Insititute and sign the campaign here.
John Akomfrah, Seven Songs for Malcolm X
52 minutes, 16mm on digital video, 1993
An homage to the inspirational African-American civil rights leader, Seven Songs for Malcolm X collects testimonies, eyewitness accounts and dramatic reenactments to tell the life, legacy, loves, and losses of Malcolm X. Featuring interviews with Malcolm’s widow Betty Shabazz, Spike Lee, and many other, Seven Songs looks for the meaning behind the resurgence of interest in the man whose X always stood for the unknown. The film will be introduced by Donte McFadden.
“What makes Seven Songs so provocative is that Akomfrah shows respect for many different interpretations of Malcolm, suggesting that this revolutionary figure belongs to everybody.”—The Chicago Reader
“Seven Songs for Malcolm X combines riveting footage of the man himself, extracts from his writing, recollections of his family, friends and fellow activists, with [brief] staged tableaux. It’s all here: Malcolm X’s charisma, the struggle to clarify his beliefs, and the context in which they evolved… an engrossing portrait.”—Geoff Ellis, Time Out (London)
Menu
The menu prepared and selected by artist and chef Kevin Thurston will include glutenfree and vegan options, including:
- Turkey meatballs, cinnamon scented tomato sauce (gf)
- Roasted vegetable platter (v/gf)
- Muhamara and pita (v)
- Dolmades (v/gf)
- Barrel+Brine pickles (gf)
- Selected treats from Arabic Sweets
Donte McFadden, PhD, is a leader, educator and mentor. Donte previously served as the Director of the Distinguished Visiting Scholars from 2021-2024. Prior to joining UB, he served as the Senior Associate Director for Undergraduate Research and High Impact Practices for the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette University. In this role, he served as the Director of the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program. He has held other leadership roles with the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette, including serving as its Interim Director and Associate Director of Administration, Curriculum and Evaluation. Donte received his PhD in English with an emphasis in Film Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He earned a master’s degree in English and a BFA/BA in Film/Film Studies also from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Donte is co-founder of Black Lens, a showcase for African American filmmakers as part of the Milwaukee Film Festival.
Born in Accra, Ghana, in 1957, to radical political activist parents, John Akomfrah was widely recognized as one of the most influential figures of black British culture in the 1980s. An artist, lecturer, and writer as well as a filmmaker, his twenty-year body of work is among the most distinctive in the contemporary British art world, and his cultural influence continues today. As a teen, Akomfrah was a Super 8 filmmaker and enthusiast. With several underground cine clubs in London, he helped bring Asian and European arthouse cinema, militant cinema from Africa and Latin America, and American independent and avant-garde cinema to minority audiences. In 1982, Akomfrah helped found the seminal, cine-cultural workshop the Black Audio Film Collective. He directed a broad range of work for the group, including fiction films, tape slides, single-screen gallery pieces, experimental videos, music videos, and documentaries. Since 1987, Akomfrah’s work has been shown in galleries including Documenta (Germany), the De Balie (Holland), Centre George Pompidou (France), the Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries (UK); and The Museum of Modern Art (USA). A major new retrospective of Akomfrah’s gallery-based work with the Black Audio Film Collective premiered at the FACT and Arnolfini galleries (UK) and is now making a tour of galleries and museums throughout Europe. In 2000, Akomfrah was awarded the Gold Digital Award at the Cheonju International Film Festival, South Korea, for his innovative use of digital technology. He has been an artist-in-residence at universities including, most recently, New York University, and a jury member at festivals including, most recently the BFI London Film Festival, UK, and the Tarifa International Film Festival, Spain. He has lectured at institutions including CalArts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the London Institute. He was a member of the Arts Council Film Committee, and Governor of the British Film Institute from 2001 through 2007. John Akomfrah is currently a Governor of Film London, a visiting professor of film at the University of Westminster (United Kingdom), and an officer of the Order of the British Empire.
The Justice for Geraldine and Martin campaign is an ongoing, volunteer-led effort to exonerate Geraldine Pointer and Martin Sostre, for their frame up and wrongful arrests at Buffalo, New York’s Afro-Asian Book Shop July 15th, 1967. Along with teaching the history of Geraldine and Martin’s struggle and sacrifice, the campaign is raising funds to steward the site of the former Afro-Asian Book Shop at 1412 Jefferson Avenue, a mural dedicated to Geraldine and Martin, and forthcoming events.
Kevin Thurston is the Chef and General Manager of Tipico Coffee. Prior to that, he co-owned Cafe Godot. In addition to his culinary work, he wrote Color Me White (BlazeVox) which was illustrated by Mickey Harmon and has numerous publication credits. He has performed with the ensemble BuffFluxus for over 20 years. He lives with his wife and daughter in a Polish workman’s cottage on the outskirts of Buffalo.
