May 14, 2020
Dear Friends,
Thank you for supporting Miami MoCAAD during #GivingTuesday. We are grateful and inspired by your generosity.
As cities all over the world reopen, we seek to be a source of positivity to help weather uncertainties of this pandemic. This newsletter celebrates May as Haitian Heritage and National Photography Month. We bring a virtual Flag Day Celebration and a cadre of photographers whose works highlight struggle and beauty. In other fun and educational “Moments”, we explore a photographic archive of Black Miami; talks on love and photography; home school ideas; our Miami MoCAAD quiz, and virtual commencements, featuring speeches by Oprah Winfrey and former President Barack Obama for the class of 2020.
From nurses to food retail workers, we thank you for keeping our communities going. By being safe and smart, we protect ourselves and each other.
We are in this together,
The Miami MoCAAD Team
Onward!
Miami MoCAAD Virtual Celebration MOMENTS
Flag Day is a great way to celebrate Haitian Heritage Month! Ayiti Nou La Toujou, based in New York champions the legacy and contributions of Haitians worldwide. It's hosting a virtual flag day celebration via Facebook live on May 18 from 7PM to 9 PM. Check here for updates .
Little Haiti Is . Edwidge Danticat is an award-winning novelist and short story writer, known for her works including Claire of the Sea Light and Brother, I’m Dying . In 2019 Her essay brings us Little Haiti's magic. Carl Juste, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, working with The Miami Herald, filmed “Little Haiti Is…” that captures Little Haiti's life and vibrancy of . See video here .
In celebration of May as National Photography Month, we showcase works of photographers who provide a global platform to local issues through the camera’s lens. Miami MoCAAD salutes Symone Titania Major, Devin Allen, Aida Muluneh, and Wayne Lawrence for daring to see beauty, humanity, and sometimes even fantasy in the everyday Black experience.
Symone Titania Major is a documentary photographer, choreographer, and poet from the South Miami-Dade town of Goulds. Her work focuses on a style that connects with one’s feelings and portrays the depth and color of her storytelling. She creates an open communication platform to encourage sustainable solutions for a better community.” See her mini film here .
Devin Allen was born and raised in West Baltimore. Allen gained national attention when Time Magazine published his documentary photograph of Baltimore Uprising on its cover in May 2015 – only the third time the work of an amateur photographer appeared on Time's cover.Listen to Devin here .
Aida Muluneh, is an Ethiopian photographer who created a series of 12 works commissioned by WaterAid about the lack of access to clean water. The project emerged from a dialogue about the role of art in advocacy, issues of water and sanitation and how Africa is represented by aid organizations and in global media.Listen to Aida Mulunek talk about her work, here .
Wayne Lawrence born in St. Kitts and now based in Brooklyn is a photographer whose work represents a visual diary of his life’s journey and focuses on communities overlooked by mainstream media. Wayne’s photographs have been exhibited in a number of museums, including the African American Museum of Philadelphia. Watch this video interview.
Artist Relief offers emergency financial and informational resources to artists U. S. Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19; serve as an ongoing informational resource; and has co-launched the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers designed by Americans for the Arts , to better identify and address needs of artists. Click here for more details .
Foundation for Contemporary Arts offers immediate emergency assistance to artists living and working anywhere in the United States, for projects occurring in the U.S. and abroad. Each month FCA receives an average of 95 Emergency Grant applications and makes approximately 12-15 grants.
Click here for more details .
The National YoungArts Foundation. YoungArts has dedicated more than $250,000 to create an Alumni Emergency Microgrant program. These unrestricted $1,000 grants will be distributed in three cycles from April through June 2020. A lottery system selects applications, with the goal of awarding more than 80 emergency microgrants each cycle. Click here for more details
Miami MoCAAD Archive MOMENT
Black Florida is an accessible, ongoing photographic archive of Black rural towns and inner cities throughout Florida. The project, born in Miami-Dade County, reinterprets marginalized communities from the inside through stories of residents and offers an alternative concept of abundance, home, and community. For more click here .
MIAMI MoCAAD Conversation MOMENTS
Black Beauty in Photographs . Kwame Brathwaite used photography to popularize “Black Is Beautiful.” and his older brother, Elombe, founded Grandassa Models, a modeling agency that challenged white beauty standards. Tanisha Ford discusses Brathwaite's photographs, which upended white beauty standards of the 1950s and '60s. (YouTube) See video here .
Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas On Love and Photography .
In this moving talk, the mother and son describe their love of photography and how their art challenges mainstream narratives about black life, joy and love. (TEDWomen 2017) C lick here .
MIAMI MoCAAD Museum MOMENT
Jordan Casteel’s show Within Reach debuted this year at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Casteel’s work primarily consists of large-scale portraits that explore the often-unexamined tenderness and resiliency of Black men in her community. Click here for a virtual tour of Within Reach.
MIAMI MoCAAD Home School MOMENTS
Start practicing your kid’s spelling skills. The annual Scripps spelling bee might be canceled due to coronavirus (first time since World War II), but a start-up called Spell Pundit is putting one on at the end of the month. Sign your kid up , we’d love to see a South Florida youth take home the top prize! (The New Tropic)
Virtual Bilingual Storybook Picnics . The Koubek Center, Fundacion Cuatrogatos and Miami Book Fair are re-imagining Storybook Picnics and encouraging kids to create the picnics at home while joining a virtual picnic. Their 20-minute bilingual Picnic de Libros en Casa will feature story time, mime and circus performances, children’s theatre, music, percussion and arts and crafts demos, and will be live-streamed on FB Live May 16 and 30, and June 13 and 27, at 11am, Live on Facebook: @KoubekCenterMDC
MIAMI MoCAAD Graduation MOMENTS
Oprah Winfrey will give a virtual commencement address on Facebook for college and high school seniors across the United States on Friday, May 15t h. (NYTimes) For more click here .
Former President Barack Obama will participate in “Show Me Your Walk, HBCU Edition,” o n Saturday, May 16 , an event for historically black colleges and universities, he announced on Twitter . Later that evening, he is scheduled to deliver the main address at “Graduate Together: High School Class of 2020 Commencement,” a virtual event organized by Mr. James’s foundation .
Miami MoCAAD Magic MOMENTS
Free Music Lessons. The African Heritage Cultural Arts Center is offering free virtual private music lessons, taught by John Harden II. Classes will be offered in flute, clarinet, saxophone and keyboard, and are available from 2:30 to 3:30 pm., Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 4 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. You may schedule a free online private music lesson by contacting john.harden2@miamidade.gov . (Miami Herald)
Free Virtual Photo Shoots . One South Florida photographer innovatives and keeps his photography business running while practicing social distancing. Kareem Virgo of Reem Photography offers free virtual photo shoots during FaceTime calls and later edits the images and sends clients the finished work. (ABC News) Click here .
Learn how to dance. Dance Instructor Marisol Blanco will offer weekly virtual Afro-Cuban dance classes. She will cover ballroom, Afro-Cuban, African, and Haitian (Loaces) dance. Join her every Tuesday at 7PM, Live on the Koubek’s Center’s Instagram and Facebook pages: @KoubekCenterMDC
MIAMI MoCAAD Quiz MOMENT
Who was the most photographed American of the 19 th century?
A. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
B. John Brown (1800-1859)
C. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
D. Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
E. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)
F. Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Find the answer on our Facebook and Instagram!
We want to hear from you! Tell us who you selected. miamimocaad@gmail.com
The Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Miami MoCAAD) will discover, commission, collect and preserve the work of the most advanced contemporary artists of the Global African Diaspora and exhibit this art at the highest level both at home and abroad.
