The Creator Leslie Cunningham, Artist, Writer and Filmmaker
About the Artist:
Leslie Cunningham is a filmmaker, multidisciplinary artist, and cultural storyteller whose work connects the past with the present to tell stories that resonate across generations.. Based in Durham, North Carolina, she is the founder and CEO of TRIBES, a boutique digital media company dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in the arts, music, and cultural storytelling landscape.
Cunningham’s most celebrated work to date, The Harlem in Havana Project, is a sweeping multimedia tribute to her grandfather Leon Claxton’s groundbreaking Black and Cuban traveling girl show that defied segregation and dazzled audiences for over three decades.
The project has received acclaim across film festivals, museums, and academic circles for its powerful reclamation of Black and Afro-Latin performance history.
Whether through film, photography, or live experiences, Leslie invites audiences to journey into the rich intersections of culture, memory, and identity—creating space for joy, truth, and transformation.
Artist Statement:
As a filmmaker and artist rooted in cultural memory and social impact, I create to uplift the stories that history tried to forget. My work is grounded in the belief that storytelling—especially from the margins—is a revolutionary act. It is a way of reclaiming space, power, and legacy.
My most personal and expansive project, The Harlem in Havana Project, is a love letter to my ancestry. It centers on the extraordinary life and work of my grandfather, Leon Claxton, a trailblazing African American showman who produced Harlem in Havana, a Black and Cuban traveling revue that ran from the 1930s through the 1960s. In a time of segregation and silence, Claxton created a stage for joy, resistance, and excellence.
My grandmother, Shirley Bates, was one of the show’s most radiant Brown Skin Showgirls, captivating audiences with her exotic movements alongside her sisters. Together, they challenged the status quo—not with protest signs, but with sequins, rhythm, and the unstoppable power of performance.
Through my documentary JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana, I explore this legacy using archival film, interviews, and an immersive soundscape that fuses historical and contemporary Black musical traditions. But the project extends far beyond the screen. It lives in photography books and exhibitions, a burlesque education series, a digital magazine, music playlists, and public performances. Each element is part of a broader vision to preserve, uplift, and reimagine what cultural legacy means.
For me, storytelling is about remembrance and redefinition. I am committed to making art that looks back and pushes forward. I want audiences to feel the urgency of these stories, to see themselves reflected in the resilience of past generations, and to reimagine the possibilities of the present.
To my family, collaborators, and community—thank you. Your support breathes life into these stories. It’s our legacy, pulsing forward with every frame, every note, every step onto the stage.
Learn about the Brown Skin Showgirls photography exhibitions
HARLEM IN HAVANA 