*On this date in 1927 the Lindy Hop dance was publicly introduced to the world. The Lindy hop is an African American dance which was born in Harlem, New York City. On that date, the Lindbergh Spirit of St. Louis airplane completed the first transatlantic flight by air, the Newspaper reported “Lindy Hops the Atlantic” and the dance style […]
learn more*On this date in 1935, The Federal Art Project (FAP) began. This was the visual arts arm of the American Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Federal One program. Funded under the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, it operated from 1935, until 1943. It was created as a relief measure to employ artists and artisans […]
learn moreArtist, sculptor and educator Mike Taylor shares two of his pieces with reasoning for their creation
learn more*On this date in 1866, this sketching, “Celebration of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia by the colored people in Washington D.C.”, was created. The artist, Frederick Dielman. served as a topographer and draughtsman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fortress Monroe and Baltimore from 1866 to 1872. It was published in Harper’s Weekly on May […]
learn more*Marion McClinton was born on this date in 1954. He was an African American theatre director, playwright, and actor. Marion Isaac McClinton was born and raised in St. Paul, where he went to Catholic school before briefly attending the College of St Thomas in 1973 and then the University of Minnesota. Swept up in the partying scene, […]
learn more*Leonard Harper was born on this date in 1899, he was an African American producer, stager, and choreographer in New York City during the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to William Harper, a performer, and his wife. Harper started dancing as a child to attract a crowd on a medicine show wagon, traveling throughout the South. In […]
learn more*The Cotton Club opened on this date in 1923. This was a popular segregated New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940 that exemplified how American racial intersectionality and inequity lived together. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923 to 1935), then briefly in midtown Theater District (1935-1940). In 1920, heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson rented the upper floor of the building on the corner […]
learn more*On this date in 1960, Revelations, the best-known work of the modern-dance choreographer Alvin Ailey. It is also the signature work of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which premiered an extended version of the work when Ailey was 29 years old. Set to spirituals, gospel, and blues music and influenced by the choreographer’s own Christian upbringing, it presents a vision of the historical African American experience from a black […]
learn more*On this date in 1958 the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT)’s beginning is affirmed. This is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. Ailey was the company’s director, choreographer, and principal dancer. The company started as an ensemble of only seven dancers, plus their choreographer, and many guest choreographers. In its beginning […]
learn more*Allan Freelon Sr. was born on this date in 1895. He was an African American artist (Impressionist), educator and civil rights activist. Allan Randall Freelon Srwas born in Philadelphia to Douglas Freelon and Laura E. (Goodwin) Freelon, a “middle-class family,the oldest of three children. He attended the South Philadelphia High School for Boys, followed by a four-year scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial […]
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