Art

International African American Museum CEO Departure Part Of Internal Timeline

CHARLESTON CHRONICLE — The International African American Museum is set to move on in the wake of CEO Michael Moore’s announced resignation last week, said Dr. Bernard Powers who temporarily will replace Moore as the developing museum continues to take shape. While some saw Moore’s announced departure as sudden, Powers said it comes as part of the museum’s internal timeline. Moore came to the museum project about four years ago to help secure funding and he’s done that, Powers said.

Published

6 years ago

June 24, 2019

Oakland Post

By Barney Blakeney

The International African American Museum is set to move on in the wake of CEO Michael Moore’s announced resignation last week, said Dr. Bernard Powers who temporarily will replace Moore as the developing museum continues to take shape.

While some saw Moore’s announced departure as sudden, Powers said it comes as part of the museum’s internal timeline. Moore came to the museum project about four years ago to help secure funding and he’s done that, Powers said.

The project that began as a concept of former Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley Jr. in 2000 originally was estimated to cost about $60 million. Last September the nearly 20-year-old project met its goal of reaching $75 million. Time and inflation required more funding be raised to allow construction. That price has risen to about $92 million. About $89 million already has been raised. Groundbreaking for construction is slated for late October. Without Moore’s abilities, the project may have faltered, Powers said.

Now that the project is moving into the construction phase, it’s an opportune time for Moore, who said in the beginning he’d eventually move on, to leave. It means the project won’t be forced to “change horses in the middle of the stream,” Powers said. He envisions the next CEO to be someone who will build the museum and eventually run it. The transition at this point is less disruptive, Powers said.

“This doesn’t change anything in terms of our internal timeline,” Powers said. “We’ll break ground in October and complete construction in two years. We have staff that’s been in place about two years who include a curator, an education outreach person and a community outreach person. We’ve just hired Elijah Heyward who as our chief operating officer will run the day to day operations.”

Heyward, a 2005 graduate of Hampton University’s Honors College and William R. Harvey Leadership Institute, is a native of Beaufort where he distinguished himself as a scholar athlete and musician. He was a dual History and Leadership Studies major at Hampton University. Also, Heyward is a 2007 graduate of Yale Divinity School. Heyward leveraged his experiences at Hampton, Yale and the Institute to found the Youth Scholar Academy.

The academy’s model was based on Heyward’s Honors College Capstone, “Saving the Young Black Male.” Since its inception, the Youth Scholarship Academy has helped hundreds of African American male students across the country from schools such as Chicago’s Urban Prep Academy and organizations such as the Baltimore Education Scholarship Trust. In 2013 Heyward became the first African American admitted into the American Studies PhD program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Powers, who will commence part time CEO duties August 2 when Moore leaves, said the project remains on track. He envisions hiring a permanent CEO whose feet are firmly planted in the museum world. Finding that person may take about six months, he anticipates.

“It’s important that the public knows we’re still working on our internal timeline and that all is on track,” Powers said.

This article originally appeared in the Charleston Chronicle.

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Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

4 weeks ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

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MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

2 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

2 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.