This limited series uses Bey’s photograph of a bespectacled young man leaning against the box office as an investigatory jumping off point into what films were screening at Loew’s 125th Street Movie Theater in New York City’s Harlem in 1976. From music biographies and fantasies, to monster movies and heart-pounding action thrillers, this treasure trove of cinematic dusties pays homage to 1970s films as well as to this storied movie house. Long live the local cinema!

Header Image (full version below): Dawoud Bey, A Boy in Front of the Loew’s 125th Street Movie Theater, Harlem, NY, 1976, from the series Harlem, U.S.A.; courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery, Stephen Daiter Gallery, and Rena Bransten Gallery;
© Dawoud Bey