Aaliyah Fafanto has a smile that could light up a room. As it happens, that smile shines its brightest when she talks about education. The UNLV curriculum analyst and poet recognizes the unique responsibility she has to this next generation and her role in inspiring it however she can.
“Teachers, we pour into our children, and as an educator myself, I realized a big gap that we had,” says Fafanto, who has taught middle school history and various college courses. “I was one of the only Black teachers, so the task is even heavier on my shoulders because I have to be a positive representation. I have to be a positive influence, and I have to reflect to them on what they could be while I’m still figuring it out.”
Achieving that is no easy feat. So to do it properly, Fafanto looked to female leaders in her community— including artist, curator and CSN creative writing professor Erica Vital-Lazare; Tonya Walls, founder of Code Switch: Restorative Justice for Girls of Color; and even Fafanto’s own mother—for the answers. Black Butterfly, her first documentary, is the uplifting result of those discussions. Through the eyes of five local Black women, Fafanto tells the story of their trials and transformations.
“We often see people in their complete wholeness, but the road to reach your full potential can be tough,” Fafanto says. “By highlighting their journeys, I hope to offer others comfort and show that, despite the struggles, they can still reach their full potential.”
Fafanto says Black Butterfly originally started as a side project to share with her students. But it’s since evolved into a community-wide film that will air at Left of Center Gallery on March 22. It chronicles the four stages of metamorphosis, with each woman sharing what it took to get to that place in their lives. Fafanto, as a first-time filmmaker, captures what it is to be a Black woman in a delicate but unflinching way.
Many of the women in her documentary have suffered loss. They’ve navigated teen parenthood, or they’ve felt othered. But those traumas hardly define them. They’re but a chapter in a story that’s still being paged through.
Over the production of this film, Fafanto says she’s learned a lot about herself and “how much I needed and still need women in my life,” she says. “I’m never gonna get to a point in my life where I don’t need community. That’s this film, through and through.”
BLACK BUTTERFLY March 22, 2 p.m., free. Left of Center Gallery, 2207 W. Gowan Road, leftofcenterart.org.
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