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OVERTOWN
Timbuktu collection captures young talent
BY YELENY SUAREZ
Special to The Herald
Visitors to the Art Basel show in Miami Beach will have an
opportunity to take a free shuttle ride across town to another exhibition, this one
organized by an artist group to showcase the works of young black artists.
The Timbuktu Market Place Artist Collective, headed by its
president, Marvin Weeks, unveiled its own art exhibition Saturday at the Lyric Theatre,
819 NW Second Ave.
The show continues from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Weeks said even though Miami has talented young black artists, they
found themselves shut out of Art Basel because of the costs. With help from the city of
Miami Community Revitalization Agency, Weeks is sending a representative to Art Basel who
will organize trips to the Lyric for guests who want to see African-American art.
Saturday night, the collective, located at 4256 NW Seventh Ave.,
filled a block near the Lyric with artistic scenery while a jazz band entertained
visitors.
But before the show started, the collective hosted a children's art
and cultural workshop from noon to 5 p.m.
Three minivans provided by the agency picked up kids from Booker T.
Washington High School, 1200 NW Sixth Ave., Frederick Douglas Elementary School, 314 NW
12th St., and the Homeless Assistance Center at Northwest 14th Street and North Miami
Avenue.
Artists such as Jansanah Thomas, 28, and Damian Williams, 29, spoke
to them about life in the ghetto and the importance of education.
Frank Saint-Fleur, 13, heard the message.
''The paintings made me think a lot about history, especially
Martin Luther King. I felt the reality of what the poets were saying as they talked about
the ghetto but, most important, I enjoyed participating,'' he said.
Also as part of their activity, about 50 youths ages 4-18 were
taken to tables outside the Lyric, where four easels holding white boards awaited them.
Each youth was given a picture of Overtown in years past and their job was to recreate it
in color for a mural.
''It is important to help enrich the mind of the young so they have
a positive path to follow. Art is an ingredient everyone needs,'' said artist Lissette
Gray, 32.
For the exhibition, a mural by Weeks captured the interest of
passersby. The piece celebrates Overtown's history, including famed former impressario
Clyde Killens and buildings such as the St John's Hotel.
Cuban-American artist Xavier Cortada, 38, used his artistic skills
to demonstrate how a boat -- a strong symbol to some immigrants -- is connected to all
individuals. Fluorescent colored rafts represented different waves of immigrants.
Miami Genome, a piece consisting of white connected tubes
displaying white rice, black beans, black-eyed peas and pigeon peas, was Cortada's leading
piece.
'The same beans that nurtured Weeks' father in Georgia fed my
father in Cuba. Where we come from and the struggles we go through are the same at the
core molecular level,'' Cortada said.
The Eugene Johnson and Friends jazz band entertained guests as they
scrutinized works by young artists such as Bayunga Nsimba Kialeuka, Maxine Gibson,
Lissette Gray, Betty Ruth and Rita Akhime Odibi, Treacy Nicole and Damian Williams.
''There is not a big representation of minority artists. I am happy
to be here supporting Weeks,'' Kialeuka said. ``The elite surround themselves with
artists, because we are the trendsetters.'' |
OVERTOWN
Artists hold preview of Works
The Art Basil exhibition will be held in Miami Beach on Jan. 5-8,
and one group of black artists is giving a sneak preview of what it will be showcasing.
Timbuktu Market Place Artist Collective and its president, Marvin
Weeks, will hold a reception and exhibition from 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday at the Lyric
Theatre, 819 NW Second Ave., in Overtown.
Timbuktu, in conjunction with Millennium Movers, a black
professional business group, will present Ancestors, Origin and Community, an art
sculpture installation exhibit by Weeks and Xavier Cortada at the reception.
Also, urban artists Betty Garrison Battle, Addonis Parker, Bayunga
Kialeuka and Tracey Nicole will present their works in an exhibition titled The Urban
Community.
The Lyric Theatre will be transformed into an art café for the
occasion, with music provided by the Eugene Johnson Jazz Quartet.
As part of the program, organizers are sponsoring an art and
cultural workshop for children from noon to 5 p.m. Kids will have a chance to paint a
mural.
Weeks, curator of the show, is the city of Miami Community
Redevelopment Agency's Overtown Artist-in-Residence. He will unveil a four-panel
multimedia historical collage titled The Glory of Overtown at the reception.
Week, who believes art can affect civil and spiritual development
of inner-city communities, is involved in several business-development ventures with
governmental agencies and others in Overtown and Liberty City that will demonstrate how
art can change communities and help them become sustainable.
Two of the projects include an Overtown Art and Entertainment
Center and the 7th Avenue Vanguard Business Association's marketing of the Liberty City
business corridor.
Cortada is a Cuban-American artist and attorney whose works have
been shown around the world, including the White House and at major corporations. He
believes in the ancestral commonality of the diverse cultures in South Florida, and he
will unveil a mural of the Cuban and Haitian elderly titled, We Are in the Same Boat.
Cortada will exhibit the DNA Molecule, a rendering of a
genetic code made up of rice and beans.
Battle, born and raised in Overtown, is a retired Miami-Dade public
school teacher who studied in Paris during the 1960s under William Stanley Hayter, a
Studio 17 artist known for his etchings. She started painting again after many years and
said art is therapeutic and has helped her with her health problems. She will unveil a
work titled Women in Overtown.
The events are free to the public and are sponsored by the city of
Miami Community Redevelopment Agency, the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust, Miami-Dade County,
the Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida and Millennium Movers.
For more information, call 786-443-5218. |
