African-American Veterans
This February, remember the contributions, service, and sacrifice of African American veterans. Learn more at: go.usa.gov/cEnJz
Sons: Seeing the Modern African American Male
January 22, 2022 - April 16, 2022
Sons: Seeing the Modern African American Male features black-and-white and color photographs by Jerry Taliaferro of 49 men from the Flint community. This exhibition is much more than a photographic study, as it also aims to explore perceptions and biases. In Taliaferro’s words,
Afrourbanism, Detroit's Black history and future
A bustling area of the country’s most chocolate city razed to make way for Highway I-375. An idyllic “Black Eden” designed as a safe haven of relaxation and entertainment in rural Yates Township. Remembering Idlewild and Detroit’s Black Bottom is an important part of contextualizing Michigan’s Black history, and they can provide the blueprint for creating future spaces with black people in mind.
Florence Price
Florence Beatrice Price was an African-American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher. Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Learn more: http://www.florenceprice.org/new-page-1
Listen to her Symphony in E minor
Celebrating Paradise: Akropolis Reed Quintet’s love letter to a lost Black cultural hub in Detroit
Paradise Valley, was known as an arts and entertainment district that drew people to from all over to hear artists like John Lee Hooker, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday, and Sam Cooke. The demolition of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, under a campaign of "urban renewal," started in the late 1940s and accelerated in 1956 when President Eisenhower passed the National Highway Act. That act funded the construction of Interstate 75, which tore through the neighborhoods. While Black life in Detroit went on, it's hard to calculate the value of that loss.
