A Tribute to Sakina Blue Star

The Sedona International Film Festival presents “A Tribute to Sakina Blue Star” on Monday, Sept. 21 at 1:00 p.m. This event is free and open to the public and will include a screening of “The American Labyrinth III: Sounds of Freedom”.

At 97 years young, Sakina Blue Star is A Warrior Woman, A Voice for Freedom, A Heart for Humanity. On the International Day of Peace, we honor a woman who answered history’s call. She stands as a living testament to the power of one human being to answer the call of conscience.

Long before she became a beloved and longtime resident of Sedona, Sakina heard a call that would change the course of her life. In the 1960s, she left behind her husband and children and traveled to Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to join the struggle for voting rights, civil rights, and human dignity.

She marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement and counted Congressman John Lewis as a friend. She didn’t just watch history happen. She stepped into it.

Her journey connected civil rights, music, culture, and community. Before making Sedona her home, Sakina Blue Star owned The Turk’s Head coffeehouse on Boston’s historic Beacon Hill, a gathering place for artists and musicians. Her coffeehouse became part of American music’s story, and Sakina’s life intersected with legendary figures in the folk and blues tradition. She also gave a young Taj Mahal one of his early regular performance opportunities at the coffeehouse in 1964.

It is this extraordinary life that filmmaker Dr. Karmen Smith, spiritual activist and consciousness guide, seeks to honor through the documentary film “The American Labyrinth III: Sounds of Freedom”.

The film grew from a personal encounter. “When I first moved to Sedona, I was greeted by a beautiful woman who took me by the hand and blessed me,” Smith recalls in the film’s description. “Her name was Sakina Blue Star.”

What began as a meeting became a deep heart-to-heart connection—and eventually a film.

THE AMERICAN LABYRINTH III: SOUNDS OF FREEDOM
“The American Labyrinth III: Sounds of Freedom” turns its lens toward Sakina Blue Star and the countless people whose courage helped move America closer to becoming the United States.

The film asks a deceptively simple question: What does it mean to be free — and what are we willing to do to make freedom real for everyone?

Rather than presenting history as dates, famous speeches, and well-known leaders, Sounds of Freedom explores the people who made the movement possible: those who marched, organized, sacrificed, opened their homes and businesses, challenged racism, and refused to let fear close their hearts.

At the center is Sakina Blue Star — a woman whose life carries the memory of a turbulent chapter in American history while simultaneously pointing toward a future beyond division.

The film acknowledges what Smith describes as the “elephant in America’s living room” — racism — and explores the courage required to confront systemic racism while continuing to choose love over hatred.

In that sense, “Sounds of Freedom” is more than a documentary about the past. It is a meditation on what we do with the freedom we inherited. It asks viewers to consider the millions of ordinary people whose names may never appear in history books but whose courage helped change the nation.

A WARRIOR WOMAN FOR PEACE
The word warrior is often associated with battle. Sakina Blue Star’s life offers another definition.

Her weapon was courage.
Her battlefield was injustice.
Her message was unity.
Her victory was refusing to surrender her heart.

Now, at 97, Sakina Blue Star represents something profoundly important: the possibility of growing older without growing smaller. She continues to speak about humanity, spirituality, love, peace, and the possibility that human beings can remember that we belong to one another. That message makes her story particularly meaningful on the International Day of Peace.

Peace is not merely the absence of war. Peace requires the courage to confront the conditions that divide human beings from one another. It requires remembering. It requires telling the stories of those who stood up. And it requires asking what each generation is willing to do to move humanity closer to the ideal of One Humanity.

HONORING SAKINA BLUE STAR
This International Day of Peace, we honor Sakina Blue Star not because her story belongs only to the past, but because her story challenges us in the present. She reminds us that history is not made only by presidents, politicians, and people whose names become monuments.

History is also made by the woman who hears a call and answers. By the person who leaves the safety of home to stand beside strangers. By the person who walks into Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia because somebody’s freedom matters. By the person who refuses to let hatred determine the size of her heart. And by the elder who, nearly a century into her life, continues to call humanity toward unity.

Sakina Blue Star is 97 years young. Her story is still being written. And The American Labyrinth III: Sounds of Freedom invites you to listen. Because freedom has a sound.

It sounds like people standing together.
It sounds like voices refusing to be silenced.
It sounds like courage.
It sounds like love.
It sounds like freedom.

“A Tribute to Sakina Blue Star” will take place at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Monday, Sept. 21 at 1:00 p.m. All tickets are free of charge.

For tickets and more information, please call 928-282-1177. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona.