Showing posts with label Delaware Humanities Forum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Delaware Humanities Forum. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Wilmington 1968: New Website Empowers Community Reflection

This post content comes from a press release from the Delaware Art Museum...

Twenty area organizations collaborated to launch the Wilmington 1968 website, a tool for community reflection. Via www.wilmington1968.org, Delawareans can access community resources that teach about the local Civil Rights Movement through words and pictures, and address present-day racial and social justice issues. Additionally, the community can share memories of their own to contribute to cross-generational conversations about this historic event. These oral histories will be archived for future generations. The Wilmington 1968 website will also serve as a hub for information about related exhibitions, performances, events, and forums. It will be available to the community through January 2019.

Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Wilmington high school students converged on Rodney Square. Subsequent to these protests, looting and fires prompted a request for the National Guard to restore peace. Although other American cities experienced the same level of uprising after April 4, 1968, Wilmington, Delaware experienced the longest peace-time occupation in modern times. Wilmington remained under martial law for nine and a half months. This extensive patrol of Wilmington by the National Guard drastically changed the city from the inside out. Residents went about their days and nights watched, restricted, angry, and fearful. Numerous businesses along Market Street closed.

If it is true that we are destined to repeat the lessons we haven't learned, today's youth are adamant that we will not get left back. Youth-led movements such as #NeverAgain-nationwide protests stemming from the latest school shootings-are taking center stage in our social consciousness and awaking a new generation of activists. 


In 2017, Simone Austin (2017 Alfred Appel, Jr. Curatorial Fellow with the Delaware Art Museum; current graduate student, University of Delaware, History Department), was instrumental in bringing this shared history to the forefront as the primary contemporary researcher on these events for the Delaware Art Museum's summer exhibition series. 

The community-wide reflection beginning this spring will bring "both answers and questions," says Austin. "People of my generation and those who are not from Wilmington will start to understand what happened, why Wilmington looks the way it does today, and why people have certain perceptions of the City of Wilmington and of Delaware. I also think in terms of questions because the work that I've done is not the end. There are so many stories that just aren't found in traditional sources and I'm hoping that more people will come forward and share their experiences."

The Wilmington 1968 partners see the upcoming events, performances, and forums as ways to constructively process the physical and emotional toll on our city stemming the uprising and its aftermath. Our community needs to know that we, representatives of the arts & culture community, are not oblivious and unaffected by this quest for healing, and support all Wilmingtonians as they contribute to these necessary cross-generational conversations about race and reconciliation.
Drawing inspiration from the protest art of the 1960s, Squatch Creative — the design firm that created the Wilmington 1968 website — blends technology and art to empower activism. Marcus Price, the site designer, shared, "While creating the aesthetic for the Wilmington 1968 remembrance, I wanted to do justice to the people who lived through this experience. It's different than creating a website for a product or a brand. It was an entire movement and people. I wanted to be sure that I honored that and the spirit involved." 

Partner Organizations in Wilmington 1968 project:

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Free Summertime Arts Options

When you're out and about this summer (maybe at the beach?) and want interesting, affordable ways to experience family-friendly and fun "art stuff", why not check out the below?

Summer Film Reviews presented by the Rehoboth Beach Film Society
July 20 through August 17
Cape Wine & Spirits, 34164 Citizen Drive, Lewes
302-644-9463
The free public film screenings are used to assist selection process for Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival (November 2009). Reviewers are asked to complete a rating form and join in post-film discussion.
See http://www.rehobothfilm.com/.

Rehoboth Summer Children's Theatre presents "Anansi the Trickster"
Monday, July 20, 2:00pm
Millsboro Public Library, 217 W. State Street, Millsboro
302-934-8743
Based on African folklore, Anansi, the clever spider, must accomplish four tasks before Nyame, the Sky God will return all the stories he has taken from the earth. Library performances are free & open to the public. Some locations do require pre-registration, so check the website for future performances.
See http://www.rehobothchildrenstheatre.org/.

Delaware Humanities Forum & City Theater Company Books & Authors Series
Friday, August 14, 7:00pm
Presto!, Washington Street, Wilmington
This program features the book "The Language of Good-Bye" by Maribeth Fischer accompanied by dramatic readings from CTC actors James Kassees, Mary Catherine Kelley and Georgiana Staley. Free admission.
See http://www.dhf.org/ or http://www.city-theater.org/.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Song Yet Sung: McBride's Novel Set to Life in Word & Song

~By guest blogger, Jessica Graae

On June 19, the second floor of Wilmington’s Ameritage Bistro burst alive with the words of James McBride’s Song Yet Sung and the beat of African drums and griot cries. In conjunction with the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival and the celebration of Juneteenth, The Delaware Humanities Forum presented a dramatic reading of McBride’s historically influenced novel set in Dorchester County. The character, Liz Spocott, who has suffered a blow to her head rendering her prophetic, is loosely based on the life of Harriet Tubman.

TS Baynes, an actor with City Theater Company, performed Spocott’s monologue. Baynes’ performance was warm and thoughtful. She made clever use of her performance space, pulling the audience into the pre-Civil War town and its outlying swamps. The steady drumbeat provided by Kamau Ngom helped establish urgency to Spocott’s message of freedom and escape, carrying us back to her African roots at the same time.

In the second portion of the program, Ngom gave an informative performance and lecture on Underground Railroad songs and handmade musical instruments. The audience learned that “Wade in the Water” wasn’t just a song about baptism, but a song slaves would sing to warn others to get to water quickly to throw off the chase of nearby dogs. Ngom reminded us of the powerful influence this early African American music has had on the blues, jazz and popular music.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

3 Arty Things You Need to Know

I love promoting new, unique, or "underground" projects. While I don't consider these "underground", I do believe more people should discover them!

1. DHF Books & Authors Series
Delaware Humanities Forum features City Theater Company actors in a monthly book discussion series called Interpreting Dreams. The first of three programs starts June 19 at 7:00pm at Ameritage Bistro, featuring Song Yet Sung by James McBride, which details the story of runaway slaves. CTC favorite, actor TS Baynes, will no doubt give another of her dynamic performances for the reading that kicks off the program. Also, percussionist Kamau Ngom performs African drum music and talks about connections among blues music, country shouts, and the Underground Railroad.

See http://www.city-theater.org/ or http://www.dhf.org/.

2. New Wilmington Art Association
This group of contemporary artists has steadily created buzz, and I couldn’t be more jazzed to see their work — sculpture, installation, photography, video and more — arrive on the Wilmington art scene. It’s refreshing, thrilling, sometimes even bewildering — and you need to see it all. NWAA member Ron Longsdorf has a solo exhibition in DDOA’s Mezzanine Gallery through July 17. But July’s Art on the Town (7/3) will see a massive group show from NWAA members at 605 Market. Get there!

See http://newwilmingtonart.blogspot.com/.

3. Brandywine Guitar Quartet
The group features a fave musician of mine: guitarist, composer and teacher Chris Braddock. All its members are classically educated and accomplished performers and instructors around the region, and they’ve joined forces to perform a range of music including classical, jazz, flamenco, and more. Check them out August 9 at 6:00 p.m. at the Cecil County Summer Music Concert Series at Pell Gardens in Chesapeake City, MD.

See www.myspace.com/brandywineguitarquartet or http://www.braddockmusic.com/