Let the Little Light Shine

April 10 update: Due to poor weather conditions in February, the Social Cinema screening of Let the Little Light Shine was postponed. The film is rescheduled for April 19. Please visit the Havens Wright Center website for details of the new screening.

media release: Social Cinema screenings will begin at 6:30 PM with discussion to follow.

When a thriving, top-ranked African American elementary school is threatened to be replaced by a new high school favoring the community’s wealthier residents, parents, students and educators fight for the elementary school’s survival.

Post-screening discussion facilitators:

Kevin Shaw, director, producer and cinematographer, has created award-winning content for national television networks. Shaw was a segment director and cinematographer on America to Me, and additional cinematographer on City So Real, from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Steve James, where they both debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on Starz and Hulu respectively. Shaw’s debut documentary about New Jersey’s famous St. Anthony High School and Basketball Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley, The Street Stops Here, aired nationally on PBS and ESPN in 2010 to rave reviews. The following year, Shaw’s Big Ten Network short documentary on a quadriplegic trying to regain the ability to walk won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Sports Reporting Excellence. His cinematography talents were recognized in 2015 with a National Sports Emmy for ESPN’s FIFA World Cup Show Opens and Teases. Later that year, Shaw produced a documentary about the relationship between megastar Shaquille O’Neal and his collegiate coach, Dale Brown. Shaq and Dale premiered on ESPN. Shaw’s current directorial work, Let the Little Light Shine, premiered at the True False Fest in March 2022 to stellar reception, where the Chicago Tribune lauded the film for carrying “the visceral impact of all six Rocky films and a few Creed films put together.” The film debuted on PBS’ award-winning series POV December 2022. Shaw’s next directorial work is One Golden Summer, tracing the rise of an all-Black Little League Baseball team as it captured the national title and national imagination in 2014, only to lose its championship and reputation under a cloud of controversial scandal.

Erica O. Turner is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and an affiliate in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Her research examines racism and inequity—and efforts to challenge those—in education policy and practice. She uses sociocultural and critical race theories to understand educational policymaking and practice, and the consequences of educational inequity for students, families, communities, schools, and policymakers. Her scholarship illuminates how diverse groups—from school district leaders to students to community members—make sense of and negotiate education problems, policies, equity and justice amidst shifting social, political, and economic contexts.Through her research and teaching she seeks to deepen how we conceptualize policy problems, racial equity, educational aims, and policy alternatives and ultimately to contribute to the knowledge necessary to make public schooling more equitable and just. Professor Turner has published on these topics in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Journal of Education Policy, Urban Education and Race, Ethnicity and Education. Her book Suddenly Diverse: How School Districts Manage Race and Inequality (University of Chicago Press, 2020) won the 2021 Erickson and Hornberger Outstanding Ethnography in Education Book Award and an honorable mention for the 2021 Bourdieu Best Book Award from the Sociology of Education Association. Her work has been supported by grants from the University of Wisconsin, the Spencer Foundation, the State Farm Companies Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. A native of San Francisco, Professor Turner was a middle school teacher before earning her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.