… look at it from an African-American standpoint, our philosophy is, … be considered part of the African-American community, and that Planned … disaster not just for African-Americans but for all North … of structural and institutional racism on Black people in … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
PROFILE: Student playwright Jason Kisare pushes the boundaries of Black theater
… and grapples with instances of racism, Kisare said that this show … center of minstrel shows to Black Americans’ reclamation of Black Santa amidst … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
Survivors still reliving deadly Milton tornado of March 31,1962
On a quiet Saturday morning 62 years ago, 8-year-old Bonnie Childers had settled in front of the television in her Stewart Street home in Milton to watch cartoons.
She was alone in the residence except for her sister, who was asleep in a bedroom down the hall. She and her father had just dropped her mother off at a nearby beauty parlor and her father took her back by the house on his way to a cabinet shop two blocks up the road.
Little Bonnie didn’t know, couldn’t know, that a powerful tornado was closing in on her home. No one in Milton knew what was headed their way. What she knew about tornadoes, she said, she’d learned from watching the “Wizard of Oz.”
“There were no tornado warnings back then,” she said. “No one even talked about them in schools or anywhere.”
She is sure the storm approached from the back of the house, as she has no recollection of seeing a funnel cloud.
“I was sitting on the couch and it started getting very dark in the house. The winds were blowing very strongly and the door flew open. It got dark and loud and I started to go down the hall to my sister’s room,” she said. “As I was going down the hall a space heater either hit me or I hit it, and I remember flying in and out of my room.”
The tornado that tore through Milton on March 31, 62 years ago, devastated a city whose population at the time was estimated at 4,000. It damaged or destroyed 130 homes and businesses, killed 17 and injured 80 more. It was one of 11 that touched down in the Southeastern United States during a two day period of tornadic activity.
The storm was considered the deadliest in Florida from the time weather experts started keeping track in 1950 up until 1998, when a tornado in Kissimmee killed 42 people and injured 259.
More:Spring brings threat of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms. What you should know in Florida
Robert Smith lived with his parents in the Skyline Heights subdivision, about a mile north of the storm’s path, on the day it struck. He said for those who weathered the event the memories remain as vivid as those of when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
“People remember where they were,” he said.
“I remember looking out the living room window and seeing big drops of hail, and my dad said, ‘There’s a tornado nearby somewhere,'” Smith said. “The gym set out in our backyard got lifted up and set right back down about 20 feet away, and it lifted the front end of my dad’s pickup truck about 3 feet off the ground. That I’ll never forget.”
The tornado traveled in a northeasterly direction, touching down first in the College Park neighborhood behind what is now W.H. Rhodes Elementary School. At about 9:05 a.m. it devastated the Braxson Hudson Trailer Park, with witnesses recalling trailers exploding like bombs.
Somehow, no one was present inside the trailer park when the storm wiped it out.
In a documentary she put together about the Milton tornado, local true crime and history buff Jeri Scarborough states that the majority of the damage wrought by the storm was done in the areas of Bonner Avenue, Sanders Street, Robin Avenue, Lark Avenue, Lee Street, Cedar Street, Gray Street, Stewart Street, Jones Street and Oriole Drive.
More:Early-morning tornado warning expires. Flash flood warning issued for NW Florida
Bonnie Childers, now 70 and with the married name of Black, was still inside her house when she fell unconscious. Upon coming to, she found herself across the street from where she’d been, on top of a washing machine, trapped beneath debris and suffering with a broken leg.
Her sister, who had not been injured, tried to free Bonnie from beneath the rubble, but couldn’t. Her father finally arrived at the scene and got her out. He had to drive over telephone or power poles to get her to the city hospital, Childers Black said. The hospital at the time was housed on Stewart Street across from Milton High School.
The 50-bed hospital couldn’t hope to handle the volume of injured people in need of care in the aftermath of the tornado, and Childers Black recalled sharing a stretcher with a 2-year-old neighbor girl. The family would eventually be reunited with Childers Black’s mother at the hospital and the young girl was shipped 30 miles west to a Pensacola health care facility where she spent six weeks in a traction bed and another six in a body cast.
The Childers family’s Stewart Street home, like the homes of so many others, was gone, with nothing left but the dirt beneath it and a driveway. Childers Black’s father’s pizza restaurant was also wiped off the map.
“We lived in a rental house and had to start buying things all over,” she said.
Like Smith, she’ll never forget March 31, 1962.
“I’m 70-years-old and I can’t always remember what I wore yesterday,” she said. “But I remember every step I took that day.”
Childers Black said she spent many years following the storm deathly in fear of bad weather. Things got better as she was raising children of her own, but after the kids were gone the anxiety returned, and when she moved to Alabama two years ago she had a shelter built at her house and sometimes resorts to hiding in a closet beneath blankets.
“I still have bad days, nightmares,” she said. “I’ll never forget flying through the air by myself.”
Still, she said, she realizes there are others who suffered far greater than she and her family.
“My heart goes out to those who didn’t make it. I was one who did,” she said. “A lot of people were injured that day, a lot of people suffered.”
The family of Gretchen Johnson lost Gretchen and three of her children, Deborah, 6, Rickey, 4, and Jesse, 2. An African American family, the four were laid to rest in a single grave, according to Smith, and are interred in the Milton-Keyser Cemetery, the segregated South’s “Black” cemetery that lies across the street from Milton-Berryhill Cemetery.
Ronald Helms, who Smith worked with years after the deadly tornado, lost his wife, Elvie, and 3-month-old daughter, Starlette. The body of 31-year-old Christine Bain was discovered by a neighbor in a tree outside her wrecked home.
Another infant, identified in the documentary as Baby Blocker, daughter of Grady, fell victim to the 1962 tornado. Others killed include Rev. Olan Taylor, 48, Waymon Freeman, 29, R.W. Qualls, 29, Luke Huffman, 82, Carrie Nowling, 49, Lawrence Bradley, 90, Bonnie Helms and Addie Nelson, whose ages were not available.
Beyoncé Has Gone Country — But What Happens When She Inevitably Moves On?
… too well what kind of racism and hostility can be found … & R&B when Black americans created these genre.— Jason (U … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News
Beyoncé’s ‘Act II: Cowboy Carter’ Album Pays Homage To Her Country Roots
When Beyoncé first announced that she would be dropping a new album called Act II: Cowboy Carter, reviews were mixed. Naturally, there were millions of us who were excited to get some new music from Beyoncé and were instantly obsessed with her single “Texas Hold ‘Em.” But there were some who criticized the singer for releasing a country music album. Enough critics that Beyoncé herself, as well as her mother, felt the need to put out several statements about her new album, which is the follow-up to 2022’s Act I: Renaissance. The truth is, Beyoncé has some deep roots in country music and Black cowboy culture, and she’s bringing all of that energy to an album that we already know will be nothing short of incredible.
Act II: Cowboy Carter, which comes out on March 29, features 27 songs including a much-anticipated cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and a song called “The Linda Martell Show,” a reference to one of the first Black artists to find success in country and the first to play the Opry. She also has two songs on her track list, “Dolly P” and “Smoke Hour Willie Nelson” that seem to reference country legends Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. Her first single from the album, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” already debuted at number one on Billboard’s Hot Country songs.
Which, according to her mom Tina Knowles, makes perfect sense for the Texas-born singer. “When people ask why is Beyoncé wearing cowboy hats? I actually laugh because it’s been here since she was a kid,” Knowles wrote in an Instagram post last month of the criticism her daughter’s new album has faced.
“We have always celebrated cowboy culture growing up in Texas,” Knowles explained alongside a video of her daughter dressed in cowboy attire through the years. “We also always understood that it was not just about it belonging to white culture only. In Texas there is a huge Black cowboy culture. Why do you think that my kids have integrated it into their fashion and art since the beginning.”
“We went to rodeos every year and my whole family dressed in Western fashion,” the singer’s mother continued. “Solange [Beyoncé’s younger sister] did a whole brilliant album and project based on Black Cowboy Culture … It definitely was a part of our culture growing up.”
For her part, Beyoncé released a statement to her social media channels earlier this month about how her past informed this new album, per The Independent. “This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.”
Finally, the singer noted, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album. This is act ii COWBOY CARTER, and I am proud to share it with y’all!”
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
Can Beyoncé’s Foray into Country Music Change the Genre’s Conservative Views?
International listeners crave music by diverse artists with diverse politics.
Beyoncé released the cover art for the album, Cowboy Carter, on Instagram on March 19, with the album itself scheduled to drop on March 29. Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” has surged up the Billboard charts, making her the first Black woman artist to appear atop the Hot Country Songs chart within days of its release. Within a week, it became the first country song by a Black woman artist to emerge atop the overall Billboard Hot 100 chart. Beyoncé’s immense success in country music is a clear signal that there is a huge audience for country music around the world, but that audience won’t settle for the music’s often conservative conventions.
In that Instagram post, she describes the backlash she has faced for her forays into the country genre—notably, the slow uptake “Texas Hold ‘Em” initially encountered on notoriously conservative country radio, and the infamously lukewarm reception her collaboration with the Chicks, performing her song, “Daddy Lessons,” received at the 2016 Country Music Awards—as a major motivating factor.
“The criticism I faced when I first entered this genre,” she writes, “forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me.”
Ironically, Beyoncé’s story of persistence in the face of a glacially conservative country music establishment—including the Country Music Association, the Nashville-based trade organization that hosted her at its award show in 2016—is both commonplace, and crucial to the music’s future. Like Beyoncé, Black artists with unquestionable country music bona fides like Charley Pride and Darius Rucker have spoken publicly about their uphill battle with the industry. Billboard famously yanked Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” from its Hot Country charts in 2019 for not being country enough. Mickey Gutyon has a whole song about this kind of alienation, “Black Like Me,” from her 2021 album, Remember Her Name.
Black Influence in Country Music
While country radio retains a powerful hold on the direction of the industry—its commitment to heavily favoring white male artists continues unabated—there is a growing recognition in the industry that, if country music is going to thrive, it needs to shed its conservative past and embrace a broader and more diverse pool of artists.
However, it should be noted that country music has never been universally conservative—or even conservative in the main, at least in terms of songs artists sing, if not with respect to radio programming policy. The genre is replete with songs associated with all manner of political movements—whether Johnny Cash’s 1961 recording of Peter La Farge’s ode to Indigenous and veterans rights, “The Ballad of Ira Hayes,” or the coded white nationalist language in 1920s songs by country scion Fiddlin’ John Carson like “There Ain’t No Bugs On Me,” signifying on his longtime involvement with the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia.
In spite of a century-long legacy of anti-Black racism, country music has an equally long history of astonishing Black artistic contribution—from interracial musical collaboration in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century, to the ubiquity of song structures from Black music like the blues, to more contemporary Grand Ol Opry icons like harmonica virtuoso DeFord Bailey, Charley Pride and Darius Rucker.
Black music and musicians are at the heart of country music, and recognition of Black women’s music on this scale is long overdue.
Beyoncé’s International Influence
As is often the case in U.S. conversations about American music, commentators at home haven’t paid much attention to Beyoncé’s huge international success with “Texas Hold ‘Em.” The song took over the number one spot on the U.K. charts on Feb. 23, making it her first U.K. no. 1 since her 2010 collaboration with Lady Gaga, “Telephone.” It’s not unusual for U.S. artists to have this kind of success in the U.K.—Jack Harlow, Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus all had no. 1’s in 2023—but it’s the first time a country song has topped the U.K. charts since Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” in 2019. Before that, you have to go back to 2005 for Nelly’s collaboration with Tim McGraw, “Over and Over.” Not coincidentally, these were both genre-crossing songs showcasing Black artists.
This is a big deal for country music. Outside of the U.S., there are very few places around the world where the genre gets this kind of commercial traction—Canada and Australia being noteworthy exceptions. The CMA, with its mission to “heighten the awareness of country music and support its ongoing growth, both domestically and internationally,” has a whole team working on opening new global markets for the music. CMA’s international relations and development office partners with global promoters, record labels, radio and television broadcasters, among other parts of the industry, to carve out new audiences for country music and new opportunities for country artists.
Beyoncé doesn’t need country music. … But, if it’s going get the global traction the CMA and other parts of the industry desire, country music needs artists like Beyoncé.
A major focal point in the U.K. is the CMA’s partnership with the Country 2 Country festival, organized by concert promoters, AEG Europe and SJM Concerts. The festival, which this year ran from March 8 to 10, brings top U.S. country acts to leading U.K. and European venues, including the O2 in London, OVO Hydro in Glasgow, and SSE Arena in Belfast. Not coincidentally, many of the C2C headliners and other featured artists over the years have been Black, including Rucker, Brittney Spencer, War & Treaty, Chapel Hart, Angel White and Kane Brown.
Brown, who headlined the 2023 festival, told the free London newspaper, The Evening Standard, that he anticipated playing “a way different set list than when I play in the U.S.” Throughout his set in Belfast, he wove his own stories about his experience as a Black person fighting industry conservatism through his performances of a string of his no. 1 Billboard hits, including “Like I Love Country Music,” “Thank God” and “Bury Me in Georgia.”
Audiences around the world are ready to celebrate stories like Brown’s and Beyoncé’s, of overcoming oppressive industry norms. And clearly, they can’t get enough of the music: As the VP of that international relations and development team, Milly Olykan, told MusicWeek magazine in advance of the 2023 Country 2 Country festival last spring, “There is a lot of intention to be more accessible as a genre to a diverse range of artists, and there is progress. It’s slow, but it’s happening.”
Beyoncé doesn’t need country music, and she knows it. At the end of the Instagram post, she writes, “This ain’t a Country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé album.” But, if it’s going get the global traction the CMA and other parts of the industry desire, country music needs artists like Beyoncé.
Maybe Cowboy Carter, along with Rucker, Brown, Guyton and so many other brilliant artists in the storied lineage of Black country music, will finally tip the scales, persuading industry gatekeepers that clinging to conservative whiteness is starkly at odds with the best interests of the genre—ethically, artistically and financially.
Up next:
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(BPRW) Film Independent Selects Six Fellows for Third Annual Amplifier Fellowship
(Black PR Wire) LOS ANGELES — Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced today the six Fellows and their projects selected for its Amplifier Fellowship, a program that provides …
10 Shows to See in Los Angeles This April
This month’s selections of art to see in and around Los Angeles examine the human condition through a range of lenses, from the corporeal to the psychological. Clayton Schiff’s oddball protagonists find echoes in the complicated characters of Maurice Sendak’s children’s books. Ry Rocklen and Marc Camille Chaimowicz both mine the stuff of our everyday lives, finding magic in the mundane. Merrick Morton, Tavares Strachan, and Goya, through quite distinct practices, chronicle grand and personal histories, shedding light on stories that might not otherwise be told.
Clayton Schiff: Routing
Clayton Schiff’s surreal canvases depict cartoonish human-beast hybrids in scenes characterized by narrative ambiguity: drifting alone in a rowboat at night or strolling down a path that branches off into a maze of freeway ramps. These figures swing between existential dread and hopeful curiosity, capturing the tragi-comic essence of the human condition. His current exhibition at Harkawik is aptly titled Routing, which can convey orderly travel and networks of information, as well as disorganized withdrawal and defeat on a field of battle.
Harkawik (harkawik.com)
5538 Santa Monica Boulevard, East Hollywood, Los Angeles
Through April 13
Tavares Strachan: Magnificent Darkness
Tavares Strachan employs a range of materials — bronze, marble, hair, neon, and sound — to explore themes of light and darkness in his current exhibition at Marian Goodman’s new LA space. The show extends the artist’s ongoing research project begun in 2018, The Encyclopedia of Invisibility, which unearths forgotten or overlooked histories related to the African diaspora. To this end, Magnificent Darkness includes ceramic sculptures of important figures such as Nina Simone, assassinated anti-Apartheid activist Steve Biko, and Matthew Henson, an African-American explorer who discovered the North Pole; a neon and audio piece with a composition based on the writings of James Baldwin; and “galaxy paintings” that draw parallels to unseen forces at play in the cosmos.
Marian Goodman Gallery (mariangoodman.com)
1120 Seward Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Through April 13
Ry Rocklen: Sand Box Living and Shelf Life
Ry Rocklen’s practice largely involves uncovering the extraordinary within the ordinary, and his steadfast commitment to the everyday currently spreads across two galleries in LA. Shelf Life at Wilding Cran includes wall-mounted mosaics, mundane Mondrians cast from bath tissue, paper towels, and pizza crusts, while the gallery floor is littered with shiny aluminum versions of Ritz crackers, goldfish, and saltines. Sand Box Living at the nearby Night Gallery features shoebox-sized ceramic sculptures based on Jackrabbit homestead cabins in the Mojave desert, inside which Rocklen has placed replica Reeboks, creating a scale shift that is at once whimsical and unsettling.
Night Gallery South (nightgallery.ca)
2276 East 16th Street, Downtown, Los Angeles
Through April 20
Wilding Cran Gallery (wildingcran.com)
1700 Santa Fe Avenue, Unit 460, Downtown, Los Angeles
Through May 4
Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Emma Dreaming of California
For over five decades, Marc Camille Chaimowicz has been blurring the boundaries between art and design, creating works that fuse sculpture, paintings, video, and installation. Emma Dreaming of California is a playful reimagination of Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel Madame Bovary, transporting the novel’s ill-fated heroine, Emma Bovary, from France to sunny Los Angeles. Juxtaposing eye-popping patterns, collages cut from fashion magazines, and assemblages of furniture and objects, Chaimowicz creates a complex portrait of Emma’s internal life, while offering her a more optimistic alternate ending.
Gaga and Reena Spaulings LA (gagareena.com)
6916 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Through April 20
Elizabeth Glaessner: Now You’re a Lake
Elizabeth Glaessner has long used waterlines in her paintings to refer to the threshold between dream and reality, id and ego, this world and the next. She foregrounds this theme in her first exhibition at Ghebaly, giving it equal prominence as the ubiquitous female figures whom she renders with a sensuous monumentality and vibrant color scheme. Within this framework, Glaessner often recasts characters from familiar stories and myths, including Narcissus, the riddle of the Sphinx, and Nut, the Egyptian goddess of the sky.
François Ghebaly (ghebaly.com)
2245 East Washington Boulevard, Downtown, Los Angeles
April 6–May 11
Merrick Morton: Un-Rehearsed
Merrick Morton began photographing street gangs in South and East Los Angeles in 1980, drawn to cultures that seemed a world away from the San Fernando Valley, where he grew up. Since then, he has documented daily life in prisons and California state psychiatric hospitals, villages in Mexico and Cuba, and actors on the sets of films including Fight Club (1999), The Big Lebowski (1998), and La Bamba (1987), always portraying his subjects with respect and honesty. Un-Rehearsed showcases a cross-section of works from throughout his career, as well as “Life of a Cholo,” a collaboration of poetry and photography with actor and poet Richard Cabral.
Eastern Projects (easternprojectsgallery.com)
900 North Broadway, Suite 1090, Chinatown, Los Angeles
March 30–May 18
Seguimos: Contemporary Art in Costa Rica
Seguimos is a group exhibition featuring 13 contemporary artists from Costa Rica, many of whom are well-known in Central America but have not previously shown in the US. Co-curated with Hannah Sloan, the exhibition explores themes of the body, identity, and site, showcasing a broad range of media including installation, video, photography, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. The intergenerational group of participating artists includes Priscilla Romero-Cubero, Lucía Howell, Alina González, Allegra Pacheco, La Cholla Jackson, and others.
Craig Krull Gallery (craigkrullgallery.com)
2525 Michigan Avenue, Suite B3, Santa Monica, California
March 30–May 18
Sargent Claude Johnson
California African-American artist Sargent Claude Johnson was a seminal figure of the West Coast counterpart to the Harlem Renaissance, whose sculptures, paintings, and public artworks portrayed Black figures with dignity and grace. The Huntington’s retrospective, the first solo show of his work in 25 years, features 43 artworks in ceramic, oil, stone, and wood, spanning his career from the Great Depression to the Civil Rights Movement. Notably, the exhibition features his massive carved redwood “Organ Screen” (1933–34), which he created for the California School for the Blind in Berkeley, on view alongside his other commissions for the school.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (huntington.org)
1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, California
Through May 20
Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak
At the Skirball, this comprehensive survey of the work of Maurice Sendak will feature more than 150 drawings, storyboards, and paintings. The exhibition includes artworks related to his beloved children’s books including Where the Wild Things Are (1963), In the Night Kitchen (1970), and Outside Over There (1981), alongside his illustrations for books by other authors and designs for opera, television, and film. The show also explores his collaborations with Spike Jonze, Tony Kushner, Twyla Tharp, and other creatives, as well as his own inspirations, from Shakespeare to Herman Melville.
Skirball Cultural Center (skirball.org)
2701 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Brentwood, Los Angeles
April 18–September 1
I Saw It: Francisco de Goya, Printmaker
Highlighting his range of printmaking techniques and varied subject matter, I Saw It brings together Goya’s four major print series: Caprichos (1799), Desastres de la Guerra (c. 1810–15), La Tauromaquia (1815–16), and Los Disparates (c. 1815–23). Taken together, these works reveal the Spanish painter as both a wry satirist who used art to shed light on abuses of power and the horrors of war and as a fantasist who deftly depicted terrifying and wondrous visions. The exhibition also features complementary works by modern and contemporary artists, including Leon Golub, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol, who similarly address social and political injustices.
Norton Simon Museum (nortonsimon.org)
411 West Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California
April 19–August 5
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
A Random Roundup of April’s Artsy Happenings
April is bursting with art events! Let’s start off by mentioning three largescale shows worthy of your attendance:
The Spring SLAM (Savannah Local Artist Market) is Saturday, April 13 from 10 to 4pm at the Salvation Army baseball field, 3000 Bee Road. The brainchild of indefatigable octogenarian Charlie Ellis who I wrote about back in 2021, this will be the 9th iteration since its inception in 2019. The market features over 80 artists in a huge variety of mediums, multiple food trucks, music, a community canvas art project, Renegade Paws rescue with information on pet adoption, and Manifesting Mobile, an immersive 3-D art collection, will be promoting sustainable art practices: truly a family-friendly art fair that is fun for everyone! Incidentally, this month Charlie will be honored for his support of local artists and for his generous donation to nonprofit Arts Southeast when the organization renames its main gallery the Ellis Gallery.
Later on Saturday the 13th is Arts on the Coast’s Art in Bloom fundraiser at the Outfitters Amenity Center at Heartwood in Richmond Hill from 6-9pm. Floral designers (including some of Savannah’s acclaimed Harvey Designs, Sandfly Flower Shop, Madam Chrysanthemum, and John Davis) will use flowers and other organic material to interpret each piece of art on display.
Tickets are available through the nonprofit’s website and include cocktails, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and live music by the Savannah Philharmonic. Jurors Jime Wimmer of SCAD, Kip Bradley of Telfair Museums, and AOC patron Alice Steyaart have selected works by Brittany Nearhoof, Joy Dunigan, Darcy Melton, Dianne Reeves, Tiffani Taylor, KK Wilson, Vinette Trivitayakhun, Dana Stickler, Heather L. Young, Kathy Hatcher, Adam Leland, Paul Downs, Patricia Harper Mathews, Anthony Canamucio, Madison Byler, Miles Barner, Brenna Baluh, Peggy Jo Aughtry, Brian Gilbert and Angela Roe.
It is sure to be a fabulous and fancy evening.
The 35th Annual Landings Art Association Spring Show is Tuesday, April 16 from 5 to 8pm at the Palmetto Ballroom at the Landings. With a $5 cash admittance, there will be over 200 paintings, photographs and pieces of three-dimensional art and jewelry on display. Most of the artists will be available to discuss their work, and there will be a cash bar, silent auction, and live music. This much anticipated event benefits arts in education and is open to everyone – simply tell the gate you will be attending the show. The 2-D judge is SCAD Professor and Savannah Gallery of Art managing partner James Mravec, the photography judge is Julia Frances Vericella, BFA, and the 3-D judge is Brain Morganlander, MFA, ceramic technician at SCAD and instructor at Clayer & Co. It is always fun to see which pieces the judges select and to read their written comments explaining their decisions.
I spoke with Elizabeth Slocum, a member of LAA for almost ten years and President for five, she is a nationally best-selling and award-winning artist of acrylic and mixed media. For this show, she combined forces with fellow ten-year LAA member Jim Guerard, a National Geographic and Smithsonian award-winning photographer. Both Slocum and Guerard are partner artists at Signature Gallery in historic City Market and Slocum’s work can also be seen at 45 bistro located inside Broughton Street’s Marshall House.
Together, they collaborated on a mixed media piece entitled “A Lion in Time” which features one of Guerard’s most iconic images – a male lion on alert in the wilds of the Serengeti – combined with one of Slocum’s antique clocks. It features a repurposed clock face, crystal, gears, springs, vintage drawer pulls, rotary phone dials, and hardware.
Hosting most of their events in a gated community may seem like a deterrent to non-Landings residents joining the organization, but Slocum insists “the Landings Art Association is probably one of the most creative and professionally run community arts organizations in Savannah.
It offers a wide variety of opportunities to its members and promotes aesthetic enrichment and education within the greater Savannah community by encouraging and coordinating interaction of artistic activities and endeavors among members.” I know from prior involvement that it presents multiple opportunities for members to show and sell their work, and it offers excellent workshops – including an upcoming Lori Keith Robinson oil painting workshop April 16-19 entitled “How to make your color sing for a more dynamic painting.”
Far from the Landings, Jeanette McCune continues to do and to show important work in her Cleo, the Project Space.
I first wrote about McCune’s groundbreaking model of supporting artists (honorariums to exhibitors and full shipping reimbursement for out-of-town makers) last January when she was in a teeny space in the Starland District. Today, the gallery has found a new home at 915 B Montgomery Street and has reorganized as a non-profit. Stop by this month to see Water Features, a show by Danni O’Brien of Baltimore, MD and Kevin Kao of Greenville, SC which will be on display through April 27.
Friends of African American Arts (FAAA), a supporter group of Telfair Museums, has extended its FAAA2024 Exhibition through April 15. The beautifully curated show is on display in Savannah State University’s Fine Arts Gallery in the Kennedy Fine Arts building. Several artists I have covered in the past have pieces on display, including abstracts by President Calvin Woodum, collage by Nancey B. Price, and magnificent paintings by Bobby Bagley.
Meanwhile, over at the bustling Gallery Espresso at 234 Bull Street, accomplished painter Sandra Dutton – interviewed in a cover story in September of 2022 – has her solo show Allegro opening on April 2. Paintings hang through May 31, with a reception on the evening of April 12.
Also, on the evening of April 12 is one of my favorite art events of the year – the SIP: A Ceramic Cup Show at Ology Gallery in Thunderbolt. Savannah Clay Community’s signature annual event, a portion of proceeds from the sale of over 180 functional ceramic mugs, yunomi, and pour-overs from clay artists from Savannah and across the country is donated to the Emmaus House in Savannah to help provide nourishment for the hungry.
Don’t miss the wonderful solo show, water ways, by Katherine Sandoz (covered in this month’s print issue) at Laney Contemporary Gallery. The lotus-inspired paintings and sculptures will be installed through June 1 with an opening reception from 6-8:30pm on Thursday, April 4.
And, finally, a shoutout to my Open Studio-at-the-Jepson painting buddy, Chris Sheffler, who will display her oil still lifes and plein air paintings in a solo exhibition at the SCI’s Learning Center, on Jasper Street (between Barnard and Bull) through May. Meet Chris during her opening reception on Friday, April 5 at noon.
RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment
AI models show bias in predicting depression among African-Americans
… stress of systemic racism, more than one in ten Black Americans is facing … . According to experts, the ways Black Americans display depression and anxiety symptoms … healthcare system is common among Black Americans and other non-white individuals … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News