Art Festival Returns for Black History Month
Celebrate Black History Month and enjoy some local art with Black Artstory on Myrtle Avenue this February.
Last year, the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership hosted the first Black Artstory Month to showcase the art community in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. Held in honor of Black History Month, Black Artstory featured free exhibitions of community artists, performances and film-screenings in businesses and galleries along Myrtle Avenue. The festival was so popular with locals that it’s back again for 2014, and it’s even bigger. The 2014 installment, titled “Native Sons and Daughters: Locals, Im(migrants), Expats and Prodigals,” is expanding to include more performance art, spoken word and storytelling events.
Reflecting Fort Greene’s long history in the arts, Native Sons and Daughters takes its name from Richard Wright’s classic novel, “Native Son,” much of which he wrote in Fort Greene Park during the summer of 1938.
This year, the festival will focus on stories of migration and the search for identity. Daonne Huff, who is curating the Black Artstory again this year, said that while the emphasis will be on the African American experience and history of migration, she also made a particular effort to reach out to artists from a variety of backgrounds.
“We all have migration stories, and how that’s shaped who we become,” Huff said. “There’s a universality to it.”
Starting Feb. 1 with a free evening reception at The Emerson, Black Artstory will feature exhibitions from 20 visual artists in ten businesses on Myrtle Avenue all month long. Be sure to check out these other free events, locals!
- Take your kids to a family story time at the Ingersoll Community Center for a reading of “Sofie and the City” and “Saladino Colour of Home” on Feb. 8 from 12:30 p.m to 2 p.m.
- Stop by Splitty at 415 Myrtle Avenue Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. for “How Much Longer Till We’re Home,” an evening of storytelling with featured storytellers Heather Dockray, Jackson McKeehan and Daniel Guzmán.
- Express your creative side! Come to Hadas Gallery, 543 Myrtle Avenue, to help paint a community mural on Feb. 16. The mural, honoring local heroes with images created by local students, will be installed on Myrtle Avenue. (Wear your old clothes.)
- Area fashionistas will want to swing by Leisure Life, 559 Myrtle Avenue, for a talk on how the African diaspora has shaped the world of fashion on Feb. 21 at 6 p.m.
For a full list of events and performances, visit the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership website.