Watch the full film

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The Harlem in Havana Project: Burlesque Education Series presents at BurlyCon 2022 (Seattle, WA)

Presenter Leslie Cunningham

The Harlem in Havana Project: Burlesque Education Series was featured at BurlyCon 2022 in Seattle, WA. Presented by Leslie Cunningham, the Burlesque Education Series features classes covering American burlesque history from the traveling carnival stage. These fun, passionate and energetic classes are filled with new and existing burlesque material, personal experiences, book reviews, film clips and much more. 

BurlyCon is offering the virtual class "My Grandma Was an Exotic Dancer?!" until December 2022. The class looks at early Black Burlesque through a glimpse into the lives of the Bates Sisters, three brown-skin showgirls who helped innovate exotic dance from the American carnival stage. Visit Virtual BurlyCon 2022. 

Visit Educate to learn more about the Harlem in Havana Burlesque Education Series.

Watch the documentary film trailer

The Harlem in Havana Burlesque Education Series

 

• Class Title: My Grandma was an Exotic Dancer?! Presented by Leslie Cunningham

• Class Description: An hour-long look at early Black Burlesque through a glimpse into the lives of the Bates Sisters, three brown-skin showgirls who helped innovate exotic dance from the American carnival stage.

• The Harlem in Havana Burlesque Education Series: The Harlem in Havana Project: Burlesque Education Series features three hour-long classes covering American burlesque history from the traveling carnival stage. Presented by Leslie Cunningham, a documentary filmmaker and creator of the Harlem in Havana Project, these fun, passionate and energetic classes are filled with new and existing burlesque material, personal experiences, book reviews, film clips and much more. Learn more.

Feature Photo

Film clip: My Family's Entertainment Legacy

 

My Family's Entertainment Legacy. Watch a clip from the documentary film JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton's Harlem in Havana by filmmaker Leslie Cunningham. In this educational video clip, a colorful cast share their memories about Harlem in Havana, one of America's most successful traveling shows that broke carnival records from the U.S. to Western Canada, helped birth icons Redd Foxx, Fontella Bass and Chuck Berry, and significantly impacted Black entertainment in the mid 20th century, during the Jim Crow era. In the video, we meet filmmaker Leslie, the granddaughter of a great African American impresario who shares her childhood memories in Tampa, Florida where the show was headquartered for nearly forty years. Leslie interviews her father John Cunningham (son of Leon Claxton) a musician who was raised on Harlem in Havana, and drove stakes with the tent-hands on the popular Black and Cuban carnival midway attraction. Their exclusive interviews add layers to this epic story. However, JIG SHOW is not just about family, but triumphs, connections and weaving across cultural divides. Above all else, Leslie is on a mission to preserve her family's legacy, before the memories die with a generation. Watch the full film at jigshow.com.

Part of The Harlem in Havana Project: Burlesque Education Series covering American burlesque history from the traveling carnival stage. Visit harleminhavana.com (Educate).

Brown Skin Showgirls Book

BROWN SKIN SHOWGIRLS is a black and white photographic collection of the Black and Cuban women who performed burlesque, shake, exotic, rhumba, salsa, calypso, striptease and female impersonation on Leon Claxton's Harlem in Havana Revue during its run on Royal American Shows from 1936 to 1967. This book is guaranteed to expand your knowledge of Black and Cuban performers that shaped American popular culture. Order your print copy today.