The Buckeye Flame   |  June 09, 2026

Sistah Sinema provides reel Ohio opportunities to amplify queer women of color through film and dialogue

‘Queer women of color are often treated like we’re invisible, and having a platform like Sistah Sinema is our way of communicating that our stories matter.’

by Tait Manning

After a nearly decade-long hiatus, Cleveland’s Sistah Sinema film series returned this past December, opening space for new generations of queer women of color to build knowledge and community through art.

Founded by Cleveland-area arts programmer Deidre McPherson in 2012, the series aims to amplify the voices of queer women of color through a combination of movie screenings and community dialogue, including panels, variety shows and art activities.

“Seeing yourself represented in mainstream media is so affirming and necessary. Queer women of color are often treated like we’re invisible, and having a platform like Sistah Sinema is our way of communicating that our stories matter, that we’re here and that there is space for queer women of color and our stories to be amplified,” McPherson said.

After moving away for college at 18, McPherson returned to Cleveland in 2008 at age 30 and sought a space where she could connect with other Black lesbians. After stumbling across the Facebook page of the original Sistah Sinema, based in Seattle, she reached out to founder Isis Asare, hoping to organize a collaboration.

“Cleveland was her first chapter outside of Seattle, and I was able to collaborate and work with people that would help me organize the events,” she said.

McPherson enlisted the help of now-executive director of the LGBT Community Center Greater Cleveland, Phyllis Seven Harris, who tapped into her network within local Black lesbian feminist spaces to generate funding for the project.

“That type of ‘I’m going to make it happen for myself’ energy is something that I’m attracted to because I might have a great vision and then you need folks who implement, folks who get it done, folks who give you additional insight or perspectives,” Harris said. “I want younger generations to see what is possible. Every decade, we hope that it gets easier to be authentic in who we are because there are so many examples, not just in Hollywood or the music industry, but in neighborhoods across the bridge.”

Sistah Sinema hosted monthly gatherings until its disbanding in 2017, as both McPherson and Asare lacked the bandwidth to keep up with consistent programming after taking on new professional pursuits.

In 2025, McPherson, then more settled in her career, reconnected with Asare and was inspired to bring back Sistah Sinema in a reduced capacity. Community organizer Sherry Bowman helped McPherson raise money for the cause.

“If someone moves to Cleveland and they don’t know what the queer scene is and they don’t know where the space is where they can connect with other queer women of color, I want Sistah Sinema to exist to support those types of connections,” McPherson said. “This is also about supporting the filmmakers [and] creating a platform that shines a light on the directors, the storytellers and artists that are making these films. It’s absolutely necessary in order to support young queer women of color and other folks in their journey.”

Sistah Sinema’s revival is an opportunity to highlight underrepresented histories, McPherson said, especially as representation of LGBTQ+ Black people in mainstream media has stagnated in recent years, and Ohio’s Senate Bill 1 has effectively eliminated Black studies and gender studies programs in colleges across the state, as part of its requirement to cut any undergraduate degree programs that on average produce less than five degrees annually over a three year period.

Their revival was officiated in December with a screening of “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story,” a documentary on Jackie Shane, a Black trans woman who achieved fame as a soul singer in Toronto before withdrawing from public life in 1971. Shane was lost to the archives until releasing her first full-length album 2017, which was nominated for Best Historical Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards.

“As another Black trans person and also as a creative,” attendee and panelist Willow Watson said, “it was cool to reflect on the history of Black trans folk because the world we live in that’s governed by white supremacy seeks to erase our histories. It’s really powerful to see that Black trans folk have not only always existed, but have been spectacular, brilliant and celebrated.”

Watson, 30, a Cleveland native and Trans + West Coordinator at the LGBT Center, participated in the panel following the screening, sharing their insights on the film as a Black transfemme writer.

“In many ways, history exists and has been valid in stories that are transmitted verbally through art – through rap, literature, music – and Sistah Sinema is in that tradition of knowledge-making and archiving stories,” she said. “Films are a form of archive, and there is also an emotive or symbolic thing that is present.”

In April, Sistah Sinema organized a collaborative screening with Cleveland International Film Festival that showcased several Black queer filmmakers. They have plans of hosting quarterly meetings, with two more events scheduled for this year, including a screening on June 14 at Spaces Art Gallery in Ohio City and a collaboration with the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival in September.

“The next film coming up is Audre Lorde’s ‘Litany for Survival,’ and I think it’s tapping into that legacy of Black, queer and trans revolutionaries, liberators and folks who were invested in our survival,” Watson said. “It creates options [and] alternatives for how to be in the world. That is the purpose: to continue in the legacy of opening and expanding the horizons of queer folks and trans folks by what we are able to see on screen.”

McPherson expressed hopes that Sistah Sinema will continue far into the future and provide for others what it has provided for her.

“Sistah Sinema opened up so many doors for me: I learned so much and I wanted to do that same thing for another Black lesbian,” McPherson said. “If I don’t have the bandwidth to do it every month, then maybe there’s another member of our community that I can mentor and they can take Sistah Sinema and make it a platform for them the same way it was for me.”

IGNITE ACTION

• Learn more about Sistah Sinema by visiting their website here, following them on Instagram here and on Facebook here.
• Attend “A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde” at Spaces on June 14 at 1pm. Ticket information can be found by clicking here.

About the Author

Tait Manning (they/she) is a multimedia journalist with a focus in arts and culture writing. With a particular interest in researching and reporting on Black music, they see journalism as a valuable mode of cultural preservation, aiming to document how Black queer communities express their lived experiences and identities through art. Tait graduated from Howard University with a B.A. in journalism in 2025, and their work has been published in The Washington Informer and CapitalBop Magazine. More at taitemanning.wordpress.com.

Original Article