Executive-produced by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Why Is We Americans? gives an inside look into Newark’s legendary Baraka family.
Ms. Lauryn Hill is bringing her storytelling skills to film. With screenwriter Oren Moverman, the Newark-native will be an executive producer for upcoming documentary Why Is We Americans? which centers social activists the Baraka Family.

Co-directed by Udi Aloni and Ayana Morris, the film will also give an in-depth look into the life of Black Arts Movement poet Amiri Baraka, who died in 2014 at 79-years-old. According to The Film Stage, Why Is We Americans? will explore Amiri’s civil rights leadership, Newark’s social unrest during the 1960s and 70s and tragedies that impacted the Baraka Family. In 1984, Amiri’s sister Kimako Baraka was murdered and in 2003, Amiri’s daughter, Shani Baraka, was killed in a double-murder.

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