Honoring MLK Through The Arts

Miami FL

20 January, 2021

7:47 AM

Description

By Johania Charles, Miami Times Staff Writer Traci Cloyd/Courtesy of Adrienne Arsht Center Sherretta Ivey performs "Say Their Name."/Adrienne Arsht Center Singer Kaylan Arnold performed Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" during the Arsht's MLK tribute./Adrienne Arsht Center, the Miami Times Jan 19, 2021 As part of a recent pledge to uplift Black voices and become a better advocate for change, Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts held a touching virtual celebration to honor Martin Luther King Jr. "Voices of Freedom: An Arsht Center Tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." streamed live on Youtube Saturday and featured many talented artists from the local Black community. Hot 105 radio newscaster Traci Cloyd hosted the event and called for a moment of silence to commemorate the lives lost at the hands of police and others due to racism-fueled events last year. The production began with a brief slide show of familiar names belonging to men and women murdered after being racially profiled, killed by white supremacists and police, or under suspicious circumstances. The memorial was immediately followed by Miami Sound Choir's rendition of the Black National Anthem, NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing." The group then delivered a performance paired with stepping and clapping to North Carolina folk rock band Delta Rae's "All Good People." Written in response to a 2015 Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting that ended the lives of nine Black congregants, the song is a call to action and an invitation to coalition-build in defense of Black bodies in prejudiced societies. "The past year has proven that there's undoubtedly much work to do towards fighting and ending racism and hatred and the extreme anguish and divisiveness that it causes," said Johann Zietsman, Arsht president and CEO, during the show. "It is truly the Arsht Center's privilege and honor to produce this tribute and virtually unite all corners of our community through artistic expression." "Voices of Freedom" focused specifically on King's six principles of nonviolence, a list of definitions that describe what nonviolence is and what it looks like. According to King's Center for Nonviolent Social Change, nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people that seeks to win friendship and understanding; seeks to defeat injustice, not people; holds that suffering can educate and transform; chooses love instead of hate; and believes that the universe is on the side of justice. Each act of the event played on one or more of King's principles. Singer-songwriter Sherretta Ivey's goosebump-inducing performance of "Say Their Name" left the audience captivated by the power of song. Repetitions of "we just want to breathe" and "we just want to live" throughout spoke to the reality of Black people being unable to live comfortably in their own skin without fearing that its color and their features could result in their deaths. The song was an ode to those unjustly killed. The Children's Voice Chorus followed suit with Pete Seeger's adoption of "We Shall Overcome" while holding signs with Black Lives Matter slogans. Poet and Art Prevails Project founder Darius Daughtry also took the stage for a spoken word piece recounting racial injustice from MLK's time to present day. Singer-songwriter Kaylan Arnold wrapped up the evening with civil rights icon Nina Simone's version of "Feeling Good" and two original songs from her own debut album, "Hydrate," scheduled for release on Thursday. Miami Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, present for the virtual ceremony, shared her thoughts on its importance. "This reaffirms the idea that nonviolent organizing is a way for us to seek friendship and understanding with those who may not see eye to eye with us," she said. "In the decades since Martin Luther King Jr. was taken from us, his teachings have been passed down through generations and have provided us a road map to bring our communities to greater alignment of our values for equality, liberty and justice for all." The Arsht and its event partners encouraged the audience and members of the community to reflect on King's six principles, and to apply them to aspects of their own lives in the fight for racial justice. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.