Black History Month Newsletter February 11, 2022
Black History Month creates a space to reflect on the past, renew the vision, and reimagine the future. America’s history cannot be told without including the journeys of Black people. Carter G. Woodson’s dedication to celebrating historic contributions of Black people led to the establishment of Black History Month, marked every February since 1976. Woodson, the son of formerly enslaved parents, completed his PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912, becoming the second African American (after W. E. B. Du Bois) to earn a doctorate.
Seeing misrepresentation and exclusion of African American contributions, he co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. In 1926, Dr. Woodson, along with Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, declared Negro History Week during the second week of February, which coincided with Abraham Lincoln's birthday (February 12) and Frederick Douglass' (February 14).
This newsletter invites you to reflect, renew, and reimagine through history, art, film, music, and art tech trends. Miami MoCAAD also welcomes you to view our recording of #Creative Conversation: History, Vision & Future, on our Youtube channel, featuring co-moderators, Nadege Green (writer), and Marie Vickles (curator) with Edouard Duval-Carrié (visual artist), Michelle Grant Murray (performance artist), and Aaron Jackson (photographer), and Ludlow Bailey (curator, art advisor).
-The Miami MoCAAD Team
Tomashi Jackson (1980- ) is a multimedia artist working across painting, video, textiles, and sculpture, whose work considers systemic abuse, disenfranchisement, and displacement of communities of color. Jackson has said: “Using properties of color perception as an aesthetic strategy, I investigate historic events that illustrate the selective valuation of human life based on how color is seen and interpreted.”
Latoya M. Hobbs, printmaker and painter, makes large-scale portraits of Black women. Hobbs’ work explores ideas of beauty, cultural identity, and womanhood as they relate to women of the African Diaspora. She creates a fluid relationship between her printmaking and painting practice, producing works that are marked by texture, color, and bold patterns.
Derek Fordjour (1974- ) is an interdisciplinary artist who works in video, sculpture, and painting. His work features social gatherings and other cultural rituals with figures such as athletes, performers, and crowds. These works celebrate Black life and highlight past and present inequalities.
Betye Saar (1926- ) is a printmaker and assemblage artist. Saar was a member of the Black Arts Movement, which explored stereotypes surrounding race and femininity. Saar has been creating work since the 1960’s and says the common thread tying her work together is a “curiosity about the mystical”.
ART IS REVOLUTION (AIR)
This is the fourth installment of Art is Revolution (AIR) by Danielle Elise, art curator and founder of All Black Creatives Foundation, featuring virtual storytelling. All Black Creatives(which focuses on equitably bridging the gap between art and technology) teamed with HuffPost and Verizon Media’s RYOT to create an interactive augmented reality (AR) art installation that can be viewed anywhere with the access of an internet connected device, like a phone or a computer. To view the interactive augmented reality installation, click here.
United States Postal Service honors Edmonia Lewis with a Commemorative Stamp
Edmonia Lewis (1844-1907) was an Afro-Indigeous (Mississauga Ojibwe) sculptor. As a result of the discrimination she faced while working and living in the United States, she relocated to Rome, Italy. She was the first Black and Native American sculptor to earn international recognition. The USPS is releasing a stamp in her honor.
The poet Maya Angelou is the first Black woman to be featured on a U.S. quarter
Maya Angelou (1958-2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, as well as an avid art collector. Her collection included Elizabeth Catlett, Faith Ringgold, Romare Bearden, and Jacob Lawerence, to name a few. Read more about her collection here. In recognition of their many accomplishments, other prominent women will also be featured on US coinage. Read more about the ongoing program here.
Breonna’s Garden
In June 2021 Lady PheOnix produced and directed Breonna’s Garden, an augmented reality (AR) experience, featuring an AR sanctuary garden devoted to the life and spirit of Breonna Taylor as remembered by her family. View Breonna’s Garden here. Lady PheOnix founded YESUNIVERSE , one of the largest networks of virtual museums in the Metavers, as well YESUNIVERSE Podcast, and YESUNIVERSE.ART. She is Chief Curator & Co-Founder of UNIVERSE CONTEMPORARY, a boutique cryptoart consultancy firm and gallery.
African Americans in Entertainment
Living Legends and Lives of African Americans in Entertainment (1850-1970) is an exhibition at Pinellas County African American History Museum at the Curtis Museum, built from the collection of historian and avid collector Willis Hakim Jones of Savannah, Georgia. Listen to Hakim Jones speak about Living Legends. Through March 1, 2022.
Fort Mose
The Fort Mose Historic State Park in St. Augustine will host the first of five Fort Mose Jazz and Blues Series concerts on February 18th as a celebration of the cultural significance of Fort Mose—the first legally sanctioned free African settlement in what is now the United States. Check it out. Fort Mose, founded in 1738, is the first legally recognized free African colony in the United States. Along with Spanish St. Augustine, it was a refuge for enslaved Africans fleeing slavery in the English colonies of the Carolinas. Fort Mose was designated a National Landmark in 1994 an added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Eatonville, FL
Eatonville, Florida, established in 1887, was the country's first all Black community when recently-emancipated Africans relocated to the area. The settlement was called Eatonville in honor of Josiah Eaton, the city's second mayor. Eatonville is known for one of its more famous residents, author and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, and is home to the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Art. Eatonville hosts the Zora Festival every January.
Florida Civil Rights Leader Harry T. Moore
Harry T. Moore was one of the first civil rights leaders of the modern era. The central Florida Ku Klux Klan killed Moore and his wife with a bomb placed under their home on December 24, 1951. They had registered 116,000 Black voters. The Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Cultural Complex, once the couple's home, is now a museum dedicated to the work they did for the civil rights movement.
The Cincinnati Art Museum is celebrating Black history with two exhibits: David Driskell: Icons of Nature and History and Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop. Icons of Nature and History pays tribute to David Driskell’s legacy as an American artist and educator, and brings together more than 50 highlights from his career, surveying the artist’s painterly practice from the 1950s forward. Working Together features the groundbreaking African American photographers’ collective, the Kamoinge Workshop, founded in New York City in 1963. Both exhibitions run through May 15, 2022.
Another View: Untold Stories, The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art at Salisbury University in Salisbury
Patrick Henry’s solo exhibition Another View: Untold Stories is on view at The Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art at Salisbury University in Salisbury, Maryland. The show features new work by Henry, focusing on the generational history of Black families and their communities on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. Another View: Untold Stories runs through May 15.
New Britain Museum of American Art
The New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut celebrates Black History Month with an array of programs, including a virtual open mic, a youth creative contest, and gallery talks. The People and Places in America, 1960s to Today is a current exhibition of works from the permanent collection. Through May 1, 2022.
Hammer Museum
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles presents Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation by performance and video artist Ulysses Jenkins. This retrospective includes video, collaborative works, murals, photography, and performances, highlighting the scope of the artist’s practice.
TIME Magazine called Ghana’s capital city “a hub for creativity and culture,” adding, “next year, the Pan African Heritage World Museum is scheduled to open. It will house archives, exhibits, galleries, and a theater, with the aim of being a key destination for visitors interested in connecting with Africa’s history and its people’s heritage.”
New York City Museum Preserves Legacy of Lewis Latimer Legacy, Inventor and Artist
Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was an author, public orator, and visual artist. A longtime believer in the connection between art and science, he gave what is considered by many to be the first public treatise on the fundamentals of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math). His home was preserved and carries Latimer’s legacy with its programming. He lived in the house from 1903 until his death in 1928. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission listed the Lewis H. Latimer House as a city landmark in 1995. Learn more about it here.
The North Star Underground Railroad Museum in Chesterfield, New York reveals the hidden history of the Champlain Line of the Underground Railroad. Poignant exhibits portray compelling stories of fugitives from slavery who passed through Northeastern New York and the Champlain Valley on their way to Québec and Ontario, Canada. The North Star Underground Railroad Museum will be open by appointment this season.
The International African American Museum, slated to open in late 2022, aims to share stories of the African American journey, as well the history of enslaved Africans and free Blacks, and their descendants, in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. Visitors can learn about historic figures and events dating back to the start of slavery, plus the role of South Carolina in the development of the international slave trade, and the spread of African American culture and its worldwide impact.
Matters of the Inner City
The African Heritage Cultural Art Center’s Amadlozi Gallery presents Matters of the Inner City, a solo exhibition featuring Miami-based artist Charles Humes Jr. The exhibition features a series of mixed-media works exploring the history, culture, and issues of Black Diasporic communities in South Florida. Curated by Donnamarie Baptiste for Amadlozi Gallery, the show runs through February 19.
Black is Black Ain’t
The E.A.T.N. Project presents Black is Black Ain’t on February 19, a one-day exhibition meant to educate and enlighten, presenting Black history in diverse communities. The event will include local musical talent, dancers, poets, and writers. The title pays homage to Black is... Black Ain't, the 1995 documentary by Marlon Riggs. This tribute celebrates the long legacy of Black liberation through the arts. Find your way into the festivities at St. Thomas University, and register here.
The Melton Mustafa Jazz Festival
The Melton Mustafa Jazz Festival weekend is back for its 25th year. The Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater will be hosting the three-day event, with Grammy Award winning headliners Dr. Ed Calle and John Daversa, as well as internationally acclaimed musicians like drummer Victor Lewis, saxophonist Bobby Watson, bass virtuoso Curtis Lundy, and many more. The festival runs February 25-28. Register here to attend.
Black in Miami-Dade, Nadege Green
Nadege Green is a Miami-based researcher, journalist, and archivist. Her work focuses on the experiences of South Florida's Black community. Green founded Black Miami-Dade, a digital platform dedicated to reclaiming and preserving Miami's Black history. Black in Miami-Dade celebrates Miami's Black community and promotes visibility through images and stories past and present.
Marvin Dunn's Black Miami in the Twentieth Century ,(Florida History and Culture) is a comprehensive history of Greater Miami's unique Black community and its contributions to the city’s growth and development. The book follows the first 100 years of Miami through firsthand accounts and 130 photographs that bring Miami's unique Black community to life. Topics discussed include migration, pirates, Black businesses, churches, civic groups, fraternal societies, and the evolution of the historic neighborhood known as "Colored Town" into Overtown.
March: Book One, Andrew Aydin, John Lewis
March is an award-winning graphic novel series that follows American civil rights leader and politician John Lewis’ lifelong activism. The story opens with his youth in Alabama and a transformative meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It follows his experiences as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the challenges he faced, including Jim Crow intimidation, violence, and the threat of death.the link should be connected to the title, not the authors.
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America is an anthology edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zobi. The perspectives and experiences presented span urban to rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more.
Justina Ireland, Varian Johnson, Rita Williams-Garcia, Dhonielle Clayton, Kekla Magoon, Leah Henderson, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Liara Tamani , Renée Watson, Tracey Baptiste, Coe Booth, Brandy Colbert, Jay Coles, Ibi Zoboi, Lamar Giles
Marilyn Allman Maye, Harold S Buchanan,Jannette O. Domingo, Joyce Frisby Baynes, Marilyn Holifield, Myra E. Rose, Bridget Van Gronigen Warren,
Aundrea White Kelley
The newly released paperback edition, featuring a foreword by award winning author and journalist, Sophia A. Nelson, tells the story of seven women and one man at the heart of a sit-in protesting decreased enrollment and hiring of African Americans at Swarthmore College, and demanding a Black Studies curriculum. This award winning choral memoir includes autobiographical chapters revealing the lives of young people during the Civil Rights era. Proceeds from the authors' share will be donated to the Swarthmore College Seven Sisters and a Brother Black Studies Fund.
A series of interviews produced by Michael Anderson and Gabriel Andrews about the personal and professional experiences of Black men from a variety of backgrounds. Each interview considers personal stories through the framework of Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, a treatise on myth and legend that takes the hero through trials and hardships that ultimately lead to self discovery and triumph. Floridian artist George Gadson is included, discussing his career as an artist.
Ringling Museum film series
Celebrate Black History Month with a special three-day film series curated by Valerie Scoon, Professor and Filmmaker in Residence at FSU College of Motion Picture Arts, featuring decades of films by Black screenwriters and filmmakers exploring themes of romance, family, and fellowship. It culminates on February 19th with a talk back with Valerie Scoon facilitated by Miami MoCAAD and Ringling Museum intern Charlie Farrell. The showcase runs February 17th-19th, buy tickets here.
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
This award-winning new documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson focuses on previously unreleased footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Summer of Soul is a celebration of Black history, culture, and fashion, and features performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and more.
Nina Simone “Young, Gifted and Black”
Nina Simone, singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist, captured the joy of Black American identity with "Young, Gifted and Black." Simone wanted the song to "make black children all over the world feel good about themselves forever," but listeners of all ages gravitated to its strong message. It was later dedicated to Simone's friend, the playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote the groundbreaking play A Raisin in the Sun before succumbing to cancer at the age of 34.
James Brown “Say it Loud—I'm Black and I'm Proud”
In 1968 James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, released “Say it Loud—I'm Black and I'm proud!” The song was popular during the Black is Beautiful movement.
The 11th album by American rapper Common focuses on the experiences of Black Americans, and celebrates Blackness in America.
The Miami MoCAAD Team
Miami MoCAAD Board Members:
Marilyn Holifield, Hans Ottinot, Monique Hayes, Sheldon Anderson,
Dr. Nelson L. Adams III
Volunteers:
Michelle Johnson, Dale Jennings II
Director of Interactive Media:
Corbin Graves
Interns:
Luz Estrella Cruz, Charlie Farrell, Christian Allen, Ashley Caleb
