*Andre Braugher was born on this date in 1962. He was a Black actor. Andre Keith Braugher was born in Chicago, the youngest of four children born to Sally, a postal worker, and Floyd Braugher, a heavy equipment operator. He lived in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago’s West Side. He attended St. Ignatius College Prep […]
learn more*On this date in 1963, we celebrate the Kamoinge Workshop. Kamoinge, Inc. was founded as a collective of Black photographers seeking artistic equality and empowerment. It is a forum where members view, nurture, critique, and challenge each other’s work in an honest and understanding atmosphere. In 1963, two groups of African American photographers held a […]
learn more*The Free Southern Theater (FST) is celebrated on this date in 1963. FST was a community theater group founded in 1963 at Tougaloo College by Gilbert Moses, Denise Nicholas, Doris Derby, and John O’Neal. In White America, their first production toured 16 towns and cities ranging in size from Mileston in Holmes County, Mississippi, to New Orleans. Gilbert Moses […]
learn more*Jennifer Beals was born on this date in 1963. She is a Black actress and photographer. Early life Beals was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, in the Bronzseville community. She’s the daughter of Jeanne Anderson, an elementary school teacher, and Alfred Beals, who owned grocery stores. Beals’ father was Black, […]
learn more*Viola Davis was born on this date in 1965. She is a Black actress and producer. Viola Davis was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina. She is the daughter of Mary Alice (née Logan) and Dan Davis and was born on her grandmother’s farm on the Singleton Plantation. Her father was a horse trainer, and her […]
learn more*The Black Arts Movement (BAM) is celebrated on this date in 1965. They were a Black-led art movement active during the 1960s and 1970s. BAM created new cultural institutions through activism and art and conveyed another message of black pride. The beginnings of the Black Arts Movement focus on when Amiri Baraka moved uptown to […]
learn more*On this date in 1967, The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC) started. This was a New York City-based theater company and workshop established by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer-actor Robert Hooks, and theater manager Gerald S. Krone, with funding from the Ford Foundation. The company’s focus on original works with themes based on the Black experience with an international perspective created a canon of theatrical works and an […]
learn more*LL Cool J was born on this date in 1968. He is a Black rapper and actor. James Todd Smith was born in Bay Shore, on Long Island, New York, to Ondrea Griffith and James Louis Smith Jr, also known as James Nunya. According to the Chicago Tribune, “[As] a kid growing up middle class […]
learn more*The Billy Holiday Theatre’s opening in 1968 is celebrated on this date. Serving some 30,000 people annually for more than 30 years, the Audelco and Obie award-winning Billie Holiday Theatre has garnered a well-earned reputation for providing outstanding professional theater productions at affordable prices. The 200-seat theater has a 40-week season and is training ground for aspiring theater professionals. It has nurtured the careers of Oscar-nominated actor Samuel L.
learn more*On this date in 1968, Franklin appeared in the Peanuts cartoon. He was the first Black character created by Charles Shultz, the cartoonist who created Peanuts. In the episode, Charlie Brown lost his beach ball; it was found and returned to him by a Black boy named Franklin. The episode ended with the two proceeding to […]
learn more*Christopher Ofili was born on this date in 1968. He is a Black British artist (painter). Ofili was born to May and Michael Ofili in Manchester, the UK. When he was eleven, his father left the family and returned to Nigeria. Ofili was educated at St. Pius X High School for Boys and then at […]
learn more*Radcliffe Bailey was born on this date in 1968. He was a Black contemporary visual artist noted for mixed-media, painting, and sculpture works. Radcliffe Bailey was born in Bridgeton, New Jersey. At age four, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia. His interest in Art began with childhood visits to the High Museum of Art and drawing classes Bailey […]
learn more*This date in 1969 marks the founding of the Dance Theater of Harlem (DTH). Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook started this classical dance company.
learn more*Purlie was first performed on stage on this date in 1970. It was a musical with a book by Ossie Davis, Philip Rose, and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Gary Geld. It is based on Davis’s 1961 play Purlie Victorious, which became the 1963 film Gone Are the Days! The cast included Cleavon Little, John […]
learn more*On this date in 1970, the first Black won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The award came to Charles Gordone, an American playwright, for the Broadway production of No Place to Be Somebody. His gritty barroom drama was based on his work at a New York City Greenwich Village bar. No Place to Be Somebody, […]
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