Art

Charleston’s Neema Fine Art Gallery kicks off Neema Gallery Arts in Schools Program

CHARLESTON CHRONICLE — The program will provide innovative and exceptionally enriching arts experiences to children in schools throughout Charleston and surrounding areas.

Published

5 years ago

March 14, 2019

Oakland Post

By The Charleston Chronicle

Neema Fine Art Gallery kicked off the start of its Arts in Schools Program with a highly anticipated visit by Neema Gallery artist and children’s book illustrator, April Harrison at James Simons Elem Elementary on March 1, 2019. April shared her journey into becoming an artist and new children’s book to two groups of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders in the school library (approximately 125 in all) before reading and signing copies of her newly release book, “What is Given From the Heart.” The visit was coordinated and facilitated by Meisha Johnson, CEO and Founder of Neema Fine Art Gallery, located at 3 Broad St. in the Historic District of Charleston, SC.

The school visit was followed by an artist opening reception that evening at Neema Fine Art Gallery for Harrison’s exhibit “Nutured, Bonded & Spiritual: The Artistry of April Harrison.” The exhibit will run through the entire month of March.

Meisha Johnson, CEO and Founder of Neema Fine Art Gallery, hopes to help nurture the next generation of fine artists, creatives and art appreciators through the Neema Gallery Arts in Schools Program. The program will provide innovative and exceptionally enriching arts experiences to children in schools throughout Charleston and surrounding areas with a particular concentration on schools that service children who reside in the Eastside of the Charleston peninsula.

April Harrison, of Greenville is a self-taught artist who by her own admission is “merely a vessel being utilized to instinctively create narrative, sentiment and observation.” She is known for her “With Closed Eyes” style and imagery where the viewer is taken on a “journey into a place where time stands still, and life’s special moments, felt by special caresses, tender touches, and fond memories, transport you into a state of inner spirituality, focusing on the nurtured, bonded and spiritual.” Her work is in the public collections of Vanderbilt University, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, the Atlanta Housing Authority, and the Erskine University Museum, and in many private collections including that of Whoopi Goldberg, Honorable Ruth Simmons, Honorable Andrew Young, Jesse L. Martin and Shaun Robinson.

Her work has also been featured on the set of several well known television shows and feature films. Most recently, her work is a part of the living room set of Nickelodeon’s K.C. Undercover featuring teen acting and singing sensation, Zendaya and actor, Kadeem Hardison. “What is Given from the Heart,” was released in Jan. 2019 by Random House and is April’s first children’s book.

The book was written by legendary children’s book author, Patricia McKissack who died in 2017, leaving “What is Given From the Heart” behind as her final work. McKissack is the author of many lauded books for children, including “Let’s Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout,” a Parents Choice Gold Award winner, a New York Public Library, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. She is also a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and Newbery Honor author. McKissack’s final magnificent picture book is a poignant and uplifting celebration of the joy of giving.

“Misery loves company,” Mama says to James Otis. It’s been a rough couple of months for them, but Mama says as long as they have their health and strength, they’re blessed. One Sunday before Valentine’s Day, Reverend Dennis makes an announcement during the service: the Temples have lost everything in a fire, and the church is collecting anything that might be useful to them.

James thinks hard about what he can add to the Temples’“love box,” but what does he have worth giving?

With her extraordinary gift for storytelling, McKissack—with stunning illustrations by Harrison—delivers a touching, powerful tale of compassion and reminds us that what is given from the heart reaches the heart.

April Harrison is represented by Neema Fine Art Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina’s newest art gallery featuring original works of art by both established and standout emerging African-American artists who are from or who currently reside in South Carolina. Located at 3 Broad St., Ste. 100, and positioned at the start of Charleston’s Historic Gallery Row, the gallery opened its doors on Dec. 1, 2018 with a mission to help diversify who shops on the peninsula, increase diversity in terms of the artists who are represented in galleries on the peninsula and help increase the number of successful minority owned businesses on the peninsula. CEO and Founder, Meisha Johnson who also is an artist, arts educator and former special needs teacher, also desires to help address challenges faced by children, families and the elderly who reside in the Eastside of Charleston through innovative arts programming, philanthropy and community organization partnerships.

On June 9th, 2019 Neema Gallery will partner with the Philip Simmons Foundation to host a birthday celebration in honor of legendary Charleston blacksmith and humanitarian, Philip Simmons who passed in 2009. The event will be held at Neema Fine Art Gallery and will include an art exhibit and silent auction of works created by SC artists commemorating the life, work and legacy of Philip Simmons. Funds raised from the exhibit will go towards the establishment of a Philip Simmons Children & Youth Scholars Program that will provide children and youth residing in the Eastside of Charleston with exceptionally enriching and empowering experiences that will help to nurture their God-given gifts and set them on a path to acquiring generational wealth.

For additional information, contact Meisha Johnson, Owner, Curator & Gallery Director at Neema Fine Art a Gallery at neemagallery@gmail.com and (843) 353-8079

This article originally appeared in the Charleston Chronicle.

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Art

Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display

The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

Early photo of Marin City in the exhibit showing the first department store, barber shop, and liquor store. (Photo by Godfrey Lee)

By Post Staff

The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.

The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.

It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.

The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.

Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.

In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.

“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.

“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.

Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”

The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org

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Activism

Alternative Outcome to Slayings by Police Explored in One-Man Play

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira. Set against the backdrop of a presidential election, the play explores how political and cultural leaders wield the myth of the dangerous Black man to manipulate the masses for personal gain. Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Oakland Post

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira.

Special to The Post

What would happen if police officers who have gotten off for killing unarmed Black people started turning up dead?

Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

“My wife and I had been talking about it for years,” Ferreira said. They had taken their three children to Brazil several times and West Africa but had yet to explore their history as Black people in this country. “It was Juneteenth last year and I realized we had a few weeks to make it happen, so we just jumped in the car and left” Piper said.

Three weeks later the family had seen everything from the African American Museum of History and Culture in Wash., D.C., to the phenomenally preserved Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. They’d stood outside of the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., and paid their respects at the Africa Town cemetery – where the passengers of the Clotilda (the last known U.S. slave ship to smuggle captured Africans into this country) were buried near Mobile, Ala.

“We had the kids keep a journal of the trip and my wife and I took notes, but once we got back home, I knew I had to make the pen move,” he said.

Ferreira plays 21 characters in the 60-minute emotional roller coaster ride; personalities we all know. While brilliantly weaving in themes of revolution, treachery, and revenge, “Black Men Everywhere!” is surprisingly — more than anything else — a love story.

“I wrote the play for Black men and everyone who loves us,” Ferreira said. “The play is narrated by a sistah and performed in front of the deeply spiritual artwork of Nedra T. Williams, an Oakland priestess of Olokun. It’s called ‘Black Men Everywhere!’ but we don’t exist without the Black woman.”

For tickets, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/5dm3mhra

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Art

City of Stockton Seeks Applications for Public Art Murals

The City of Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) has announced the opportunity for artist(s) and/or artist teams to apply to design and paint original artwork on City-owned property through a Public Art Mural Program. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

Published

3 months ago

January 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

City of Stockton

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

This program has $50,000 in available funds for artist(s) and is also available for those who have already identified funds and would like to complete a mural project on city-owned property. Applications will be reviewed on a competitive basis and selected by the SAC.

To learn more about the Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) or qualifications and eligibility for Public Art Mural Program, please visit www.stocktonca.gov/publicart or call the Community Services Department at (209) 937-8206.