The Film, If Heaven Had Heights by Dr. Fahamu Pecou

The Film, If Heaven Had Heights by Dr. Fahamu Pecou

If Heaven Had Heights Judged by the standards of others, it can sometimes be difficult to see what is possible. The spirit known as Sag God embodies Black youthful dissidence reminding us that not everything is as it appears. This short film accompanies an exhibit of paintings and drawings by the same title. These works are conversant with ideas of hope and aspiration and possibility rarely considered on Black bodies. This series transposes the typically negative associations made of Black anti-conformity into an examination of what is possible when we seek an alternative perspective. Written by: Dr. Fahamu Pecou Directed by: Dr. Fahamu Pecou, Tremain Hamilton Score by: Ray Murray (Organized Noise) “If Heaven Had Heights” invites us to imagine heaven of our own making.

Dr. Fahamu Pecou is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose works combine observations on hip-hop, fine art, and popular culture to address concerns around contemporary representations of Black men. Through paintings, performance art, and academic work, Dr. Pecou confronts the performance of Black masculinity and Black identity, challenging and expanding the reading, performance, and expressions of Blackness. Dr. Fahamu Pecou received his BFA at the Atlanta College of Art in 1997 and a Ph.D. from Emory University in 2018. Dr. Pecou exhibits his art worldwide in addition to lectures and speaking engagements at colleges and universities. Pecou’s work is featured in noted private and public national and international collections including Smithsonian National Museum of African American Art and Culture, Societe Generale (Paris), Nasher Museum at Duke University, The High Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Seattle Art Museum, Paul R. Jones Collection, ROC Nation, Clark Atlanta University Art Collection and Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia. Dr. Pecou was recently announced as one of the recipients of the 2022 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award. In 2020, Pecou was one of 6 artists selected for Emory University’s groundbreaking Arts & Social Justice Fellowship. Additionally, Pecou was the Georgia awardee for the 2020 South Arts Prize. In 2017 he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition “Miroirs de l’Homme” in Paris, France. A recipient of the 2016 Joan Mitchell Foundation “Painters and Sculptors” Award, his work also appears in several films and television shows including HBO’s Between the World and Me, Blackish, and The Chi. Pecou’s work has also been featured on numerous publications including Atlanta Magazine, Hanif Abdurraqib’s poetry collection, A Fortune for Your Disaster and the award-winning collection of short stories by Rion Amilcar Scott, The World Doesn’t Require You.