These South Florida arts groups highlight Black artists throughout February and beyond

Sometimes the best way to learn about history is to dive into the arts.

This Black History Month, South Florida museums and arts organizations have planned dozens of events, exhibitions and performances that highlight the work and legacy of Black creatives. In a time when Florida politicians have been suppressing Black history education, arts organizations are focusing on the past, present and future of African-American representation and featuring exhibitions on today’s Black artists.

Here are five events and shows to check out this month:

New World Symphony’s Harlem Renaissance festival

New World Symphony is exploring the influence of the Harlem Renaissance abroad with “I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance in Europe,” a two-week music and arts festival.

The festival includes concerts, performances, an art exhibition and discussions about the African-American creatives who left the United States searching for better opportunities and artistic freedom. Many artists, singers and dancers went to France and took Paris nightlife by storm. The music that emerged from the Harlem Renaissance changed the way music was made.

Christopher Norwood, the founder of Hampton Art Lovers at the Historic Ward Rooming House in Overtown, curated “Le Paris Noir: Henry Ossawa Tanner & Lois Mailou Jones,” which will be on display in New World Center’s atrium. Tanner and Jones, two painters who found refuge and success in France, were the first internationally recognized male and female African-American artists.

“This music is about individuals who dreamed of a world free from racial, gender, economic exploitation,” said Tammy Kernodle, the festival curator and Black music history expert. ”So, we are dreaming a world. This music is about the world that we hope to one day live in.”

When: Through Feb. 15

Where: New World Center, 500 17th St., Miami Beach

Info: Full schedule and tickets available online. https://www.nws.edu/events-tickets/concerts/#/calendar

FIU Frost Art Museum’s Rosewood exhibition

In 1923, a white woman’s false accusation against Aaron Carrier, a Black man, resulted in a mob of 500 Ku Klux Klan members attacking the thriving Black town of Rosewood in North Florida and burning it to the ground.

Lizzie Robinson Jenkins, Carrier’s niece, has dedicated much of her life to researching Rosewood and keeping its story alive. One hundred years later, Jenkins’ work and family story laid the groundwork for “An Elegy to Rosewood,” an exhibition at Florida International University’s Frost Art Museum. The exhibition features family heirlooms, photographs and commissioned art pieces to highlight a once forgotten piece of Florida history.

“ ‘You will tell the story of Rosewood,’ ” Jenkins told the Miami Herald, recalling what her mother told her. “ ‘We must keep this history alive.’ ”

Chire Regans, a Miami-based artist also known as VantaBlack, made a book based on portraits of Jenkins, her mother and her grandmother. The artwork was inspired by the role Black women played in uncovering Rosewood’s history.

“Everything was intentionally erased,” Regans said of Rosewood. “So a lot of what she has is these stories that were passed down through her family.”

When: Frost Art Museum, 10975 SW 17th St., Miami

Where: On view until April 16

Info: https://frost.fiu.edu

Oolite Arts’ ‘Good Times’ exhibition

Miami-based artist Chris Friday’s solo exhibition at Oolite Arts on Lincoln Road depicts Black people having a good time — resting, dancing and braiding their hair.

The show, called “Good Times,” was inspired by the ‘80s sitcom of the same name about an African-American family living in a poor Chicago neighborhood. The collection of new artwork celebrates nostalgia despite hardship and approaches themes like hair care, rest and community spaces with a sense of humor. The drawings on display include young Black girls with braided hair, ceramic recreations of comfort food, and several series of people dancing.

Friday is a multidisciplinary artist whose large-scale drawings often analyze pop culture and how Black people are portrayed in media. When thinking of themes for the show, she was especially inspired by the sitcom’s theme song: “Temporary layoffs, good times! Easy credit ripoffs, good times! Scratchin’ and survivin’, good times!”

The lyrics seemed a bit sarcastic, Friday said.

“These are not necessarily good times,” Friday told the Herald, laughing. “It proves that you can look back on anything within a nostalgic view and say, ‘Hey, you know what? Those were good times.’ ”

Though the show mainly speaks to the Black community, anyone can relate to feeling nostalgic for a time that was far from perfect. Viewers are meant to see themselves in the drawings of relaxation and joy.

When: On view until April 2

Where: Oolite Arts, 924 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. Located on the second floor.

Info: https://oolitearts.org/exhibition/good-times/

Immersive exhibition on lost history in Boca Raton

“Whitfield Lovell: Passages” is an immersive art exhibition that focuses on lost African-American history.

Whitfield Lovell is a New York-based artist who is known for his site-specific installations and Conté crayon portraits. His drawings are recreations of photos of unidentified Black Americans who lived between the Emancipation Proclamation and the start of the Civil Rights Movement, a period of time the artist said is often overlooked by the art world.

“Passages” is the largest exhibition of Lovell’s work, taking up the museum’s entire first floor. The show features “Deep River,” an immersive multimedia installation inspired by the dangerous journey enslaved people took crossing the Tennessee River to find refuge in Chattanooga during the Civil War.

Boca Raton is the first stop of the exhibition’s tour across the United States.

“I see the so-called ‘anonymous’ people in these vintage photographs as being stand-ins for the ancestors I will never know,” Lovell said in a statement.

When: On view Feb. 15-May 21.

Where: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton

Info: https://bocamuseum.org/art/whitfield-lovell-passages-0

MOCA North Miami honors Haitian-American artist

Didier William, a Haitian-American painter, returned to his hometown of North Miami for “Didier William: Nou Kite Tout Sa Dèyè,” a solo exhibition of his artwork. The show, which translates from Haitian Creole to “we’ve left that all behind,” features more than 40 artworks that explore themes of immigration, Haitian history and culture and growing up in North Miami.

Many of the works are painted wooden carvings that depict scenes from his childhood, like his father killing a roach with a sandal, his first homes in North Miami and watching TV with his brothers. The people in the works are covered in eyes that stare back at the viewer, symbolizing the uncomfortable stares often felt by marginalized people.

William, who now works and lives in Philadelphia, studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Yale University’s School of Art. His work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of Art, the Museum of Latin American Art, the Museum at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

On Feb. 15, North Miami Mayor Alix Desulmé will present William with the key to the city to commemorate his achievements in the arts.

When: Through April 16. Key to the city event on Feb. 15, 5:30-7 p.m.

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami

Info: https://mocanomi.org/2022/12/didier-william-nou-kite-tout-sa-deye/

This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.