Jazz Under a Simple Tree at the Ward : Music & Community Story Gathering

249 Northwest 9th Street,Miami FL 33136

18 September, 2021

Description

Join us for our Jazz Series of outdoor performances "Jazz Under a Simple Tree" featuring The CieL Experience & Story Gathering with FIU Join us for a free evening of jazz and food, and share your story! At the first in a series of Story Gathering Saturdays, the WPHL team is partnering with Hampton Art Lovers to collect and preserve the oral histories of African-American families of the Great Migration. We will spend the evening gathering community stories at the Historic Rooming House Gallery, home to the current exhibition One Way Ticket: Movement, Migrations and Liberty, featuring the work of Langston Hughes & Jacob Lawrence. The evening will feature live jazz with The CieL Experience and a free fish fry courtesy of Captain Gooch. One Way Ticket: Movement, Migrations and Liberty explores stories of freedom and liberty through the poetry of Langston Hughes and the featured artwork of Jacob Lawrence, with other works from Charles White, Basil Watson, John Biggers, Charles Alston, David Driskell, Leroy Campbell, Anthony Reed II (Mojo) and Marvin Weeks. Additional Storytelling Saturdays will take place at the Historic Ward Rooming House Gallery on August 21 and September 18. Hampton Art Lovers We inspire the appreciation of African-American Fine Art. We honor the heart and soul of Fine Artists and make their work accessible to anyone who loves art. Hampton Art Lovers believes that understanding culture through experiencing the arts is becoming increasingly vital in the modern world. We live in an information economy, a world in which technology can provide access to products and services that have been previously inaccessible. Intense, experiential learning is the currency of the knowledge economy and lovers of art do this naturally. Hampton Art Lovers believes that through culture and arts education we can improve our communities and communities all over the world. Historic Ward Rooming House The Ward Rooming House is owned by the City of Miami SE Overtown/Park West CRA and operated by Hampton Art Lovers. The Historic Ward Rooming House Gallery has a rich socially significant history. It is an honor to bring this exhibition to this space. Built in the 1900s by an African-American family with Bahamian roots (Shaddrack and Victoria Ward), the Ward Rooming House served as a home for both African American and Native Americans who needed a safe place to sleep at night. In the 1940s and 50s it was known for hosting various civic groups and became the “Club House”. Built in the era of Overtown's historic heyday, when it was known as "Colored Town," the Ward Rooming House stands as a tribute to the history of one of the oldest historic Black community in the City of Miami. As one of the few remaining buildings of its time, a seemingly ordinary rooming house becomes significant for the larger role it serves in preserving the history and architecture of Miami's Black community. It was designated a historic site by the City of Miami in 2006 and fully restored in 2010. Now it serves as a gallery and event space.