Ina Norris, 65, an educator, filmmaker, author, playwright, mother, and founder of the Kwanzaa Film Festival, has dedicated years to sharing stories, preserving culture, and helping young people find their voice in the arts and entertainment sector.
Born in Staten Island and raised in Long Island in the 1960s, and a member of the first migration of Black people coming to Long Island, Norris describes her early childhood as a time filled with anxiety.
“All I knew was that I wasn’t wanted. I didn’t understand anything,” she shares, describing her experience as a woman of color during this time. As the idea of integrating schools began to arise, Norris describes her experience and difficulty getting an education.
“During my first year of first grade, my mother had to take me out of school because she got a phone call saying that these white parents are getting ready to kill your kids. Come and get her.” Because school was a difficult space to gain connection and find her passions, Norris attended dance school, where she learned about Black history.
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Caption for 2: Image of Ina Norris at a conference.
Caption for 3: Flyer for the Kwanzaa Film Festival.
“At dance school, we had to learn poems by all of the greats, such as Langston Hughes and many others,” noting this experience as highly valuable and needed because Black history, culture, and art wasn’t just something she read; it was a part of her everyday life. “There was nobody during that particular time in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s, that didn’t have a Black history encyclopedia in their house. Black history was so important during that particular time.”
Norris went on to North Babylon High School in Long Island and later attended Hampton University, where she majored in psychology and received a B.A. Alongside her studies, Norris always wrote poems and anything else that came to mind.
She recalls taking a test to determine what life after graduation would look like. As several students had many different career options, Norris had two.
“I was like, ‘What?’ It was a clinical psychologist and a playwright. At the time, I had never written a play.”
After graduation, Norris left Virginia, eventually returning to Long Island for only a year before moving to the Bronx, where she has been living for 45 years.
Years after returning to the city, Norris didn’t know exactly what she wanted to pursue but found herself writing again. In 1991, she began using her previous poems and writing pieces to raise money for a Black independent school called The Learning Tree Preparatory School in the Bronx.
“I wanted to raise money because they were getting ready to close down, and my friend said, ‘Well, don’t you have all these poems and all this stuff you’ve been writing? Let’s go through the box.’ And I went through the box, and that’s when ‘Nobody Loves a Black Little Girl When She Becomes a Woman’ was born,” Norris said.
“Nobody Loves a Black Little Girl When She Becomes a Woman,” Norris’s first play and now published book, focused on self-love and examining oneself and society through the lens of a Black woman. The production of this play marked the creation of her production company, In A Woman Productions, and set the foundation for a decades-long career in playwriting, directing, and community organizing.
Norris later served as Director of Performing Arts at The Learning Tree for 11 years, guiding youth in drama, public speaking, and social-emotional learning through the arts. Once she realized she wanted to get into community organizing and impact work, she also worked for the Special Services for Children.
She went on to write many more plays, such as “A Secret Lies Inside My Sister’s Womb,” “Ain’t Yo Mama Crying on a Pancake Box-Car,” “Don’t Play That Song for Me,” “A Turnstile Warrior,” and “Danny’s Wolf,” which was about the late Danny Simmons. She also produced two short films called “First Fruits” and “Last Chamber in Harlem.”
Many of Norris’ works have been featured in Harlem and throughout NYC. To name a few, “A Secret Lies Inside My Sister’s Womb” debuted at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and “Ain’t Yo Mama Crying on a Pancake Box-Car” earned her the Gregory Millard New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship and made its debut at the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse.
Norris, founder of the NYC Young Producers Project and the Kwanzaa Film Festival, strives to give back to her community. Through the Young Producers Project, she worked “with young people, teaching them how to produce films, plays, and events, and how to become producers. Also teaching them how to really actually know how to raise the money, how to approach people for sponsorship, and all of those kinds of things you do.”
In 2017, the Kwanzaa Film Festival was born. Inspired by her mother’s constant Kwanzaa celebrations, Norris wanted to build a community of filmmakers inspired by this holiday.
“I wanted to build a film festival around the community and Black people around the world. We come together for seven days showing films and holding discussions, leaving with a spirit of helping one another and sharing opportunity, rather than competition.” A lot of these events are based in Harlem.
Many of her works through these programs have been featured in the Schomburg Center, Dwyer Center, Magic Johnson, and the Harlem Community Center.
The Kwanzaa Film Festival’s 10th anniversary will run in person from Dec. 26–30, followed by a virtual program on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, featuring films centered on the Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba).
When reflecting on her past and wanting to give advice to the next generation of filmmakers or creators, Norris says, “Don’t be afraid to ask someone to mentor you, no matter your age. If you’re starting out in the arts, whether it’s playwriting, filmmaking, or editing — get a mentor and choose them wisely.”
