Our February 1st screening will feature a discussion afterwards with Max Roach’s daughter, Dara Rashida Roach and his widow, Janus Adams.
United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.
Dara Roach is a seasoned media professional, entrepreneur and cultural ambassador. Dara currently serves as the CEO of BCakeNY, a custom cake studio and food experience agency in Brooklyn, New York.
Her diverse career spans television production, retail, digital media, marketing, and business operations. Before joining BCakeNY, Dara worked as a television producer for CBS News and Viacom then as a fundraiser and operator of private equity-backed startups.
Entrepreneurship and creativity have been integral to Dara’s life. She is the daughter of the legendary jazz drummer Max Roach and Emmy award-winning journalist, author, and historian Dr. Janus Adams. As a teenager she apprenticed at her father’s music management business and her mother’s African American book club – the first of its kind. Growing up in such a culturally rich environment, instilled with values of fearlessness and resilience, which have propelled her diverse career.
In addition to her professional endeavors, Dara, along with her siblings, manages her father’s estate, ensuring the preservation and perpetuation of his legacy.
Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, and historian Janus Adams originated the position of National Arts correspondent for NPR and opened the New York News Bureau. She is the author of eleven books including SISTER DAYS: 365 Inspired Moments in African American Women’s History and her BackPaxKids Parents’ Choice Award-winning children’s series. Her book, GLORY DAYS: 365 Inspired Moments in African American History was licensed by McDonald’s; reaching 3.1 million readers. Glory Days-in-Concert, produced by Warner Music Group, premiered on Nashville’s Music Square.
She has worked on several independent films; among them Bill Gunn’s Ganja and Hess―the only US film selected for the 1973 Cannes Film Festival’s Critics Week. She is in development on a documentary, ETCHED IN STONE: A History of America in the Story of a House.
She has been awarded Doctor of Humane Letters degrees by Shaw University and the State University of New York at New Paltz.
