Director Ya’Ke Smith’s ‘Cycles of Resilience: A Journey Through Austin’s Black History’ to Premiere at 2026 American Black Film Festival
Black History Bike Ride, Exodus Filmworks, Netta Lou Creative, and Hi-Post are proud to announce the world premiere of Cycles of Resilience: A Journey Through Austin’s Black History, an hour-long documentary directed by Ya’Ke Smith (Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom), at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
Smith won the HBO Short Film Competition in 2008 and this will mark his sixth appearance at the festival.
Cycles of Resilience starts its festival run by making its world premiere at ABFF at 11:40am on Thursday, May 28, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Passes and tickets are available at abff.com.
Following its world premiere at ABFF, Cycles of Resilience will make its Austin premiere on Tuesday, June 17, 2026 at 7:00 PM at Austin Film Society Cinema, 6406 N IH-35, Austin, TX 78752. Tickets are available at blackhistorybikeride.com/film.
“Directing Cycles of Resilience was not only a great pleasure but also a profound opportunity to delve into Austin’s rich Black history,” said Ya’Ke Smith. “Having lived here for nearly a decade, I uncovered many aspects I had never known before. Each interview, every stop along the ride, and all interactions with members of Austin’s diverse community exhumed a history that has long been overlooked and buried. This will mark my sixth appearance at the American Black Film Festival, and each time is sweeter than the one before. Screening Cycles of Resilience at a festival whose core mission has always been to celebrate Blackness in all its forms and to champion independent filmmakers working across the diaspora is nothing short of amazing. In reflecting on this journey, I’m reminded of the importance of storytelling in preserving history and fostering connection. The hope is that each screening will not only highlight the resilience of our community but also open up dialogue that is essential for understanding and progress.”
From Executive Producer Talib Abdullahi, Cycles of Resilience tells the story of hundreds of cyclists biking together on Black History Bike Ride’s 6th annual Juneteenth Ride. Together they journey through history, from plantation sites to freedom communities, to areas shaped by forced segregation and present day gentrification, highlighting historic and modern leaders of the Black community like Jacob Fontaine and Barbara Jordan.
“Black History Bike Ride started because I believed our history deserved to be celebrated in the streets, not just studied in classrooms,” said Talib Abdullahi. “We ride together - all of us - through neighborhoods that were built by Black people, erased by policy, and forgotten by design. Cycles of Resilience is the natural extension of that work. After years of leading this scrappy, community-powered nonprofit, we have made something beautiful: a film that honors the Black leaders and freedom communities who came before us, and the riders, volunteers, and neighbors who show up for us today. We exist in a moment when Black history is being
threatened, when the act of teaching truth has become controversial. But existing joyfully, riding freely, and learning together in public - That should not threaten anyone. It never has. We welcome everyone to this work. This film is for Austin and the world. This film is for the people whose names history forgot. And this film is proof that public education built outside the walls of academia, built on two wheels, in community, can change how a city sees itself.”
Through interviews with community- and thought-leaders like Dr. Peniel Joseph (Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America's Civil Rights Revolution), Dr. Tara Dudley (Reckoning with the Past: Slavery, Segregation, and Gentrification in Austin), and James Beard Award-nominated, Top Chef alum Amanda Turner, as well as through animations and archival materials, an inspirational, under-told story of Black excellence unfolds. In Cycles of Resilience, universal themes of community perseverance, confronting injustice, and preserving family bonds reveal the importance of community-led oral storytelling.
About Director Ya’Ke Smith
Ya’Ke Smith’s films have screened at over 150 film festivals and won over 60 awards. The Directors Guild of America, the Student Academy Awards, HBO, Showtime, the City of Buffalo, NY, which proclaimed February 23, 2013 as Ya’Ke Smith Day, and the city of Cincinnati, OH, which proclaimed October 6, 2019 as Ya'Ke Smith Day, have honored him. He is currently a professor of film at the University of Texas at Austin.
About Black History Bike Ride
Talib Abdullahi founded Black History Bike Ride (BHBR) in 2020, at a moment when communities across the country were reckoning with racial injustice. Austin, one of the fastest-growing cities in America, was long overdue for a public conversation about its own history. BHBR was born as an act of community building: a belief that the best way to honor the past was to ride through it together. Joined by co-leaders Ariel Marlowe and Brandon Grant, BHBR has led more than 55 rides in Austin, focused on building community and sharing the under-told stories of Black Austin with anyone willing to show up, get on a bike, and learn.
