FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 21, 2019 • BLACK HISTORY MONTH • THE QUEENS COURIER 73
Jamaica Center for Arts
and Learning Presents
BLACK HISTORY
MONTH CULTURAL EVENTS
the biggest celebration in JCAL’s various cultural
spaces
Jamaica Art Center (JAC) 161-04 Jamaica Avenue
Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC) 153-10
Jamaica Avenue along with a
Public Arts piece along the front of JPAC.
Feb. 21, 7pm – 9pm, TAP – Omar Edwards: The
History of Tap Dance America @JAC Theater
Feb. 23, 3 pm - 5 pm, ORAL HISTORY/FILM: Double
Victory & Freedom Flyers of Tuskegee/Speaker
Feb. 23, 7:30pm – 9:30pm DANCE - Fanike African
Dance Troupe @JPAC
Feb. 28, 7pm – 9pm, LITERARY – Kinetic: A Literary
Jam Series @ JAC Theater
Saturdays, Feb 2, 9, 16, 23 10am – 3pm JCAL School
of the Arts classes @JAC studios
Additional activities (will be announced on JCAL social
media sites & our website
JAMAICA QUEENS, NYC FEBRUARY 2019 - BLACK
HISTORY MONTH marks another year and opportunity
for JCAL and artists from Southeast Queens and NYC
Boroughs to present work that honors and celebrates
the history and contemporary achievements of the
men and women of the African-American community.
Throughout February, JCAL will present and offer
cultural events that showcase the music, theater,
dance, visual arts, film, literary, educational,
philosophical and social breakthroughs that African-
Americans have achieved in the United States and
abroad.
Our central tone is set by the Tuskegee Airmen and
the Civil Rights movement; the incredible fight and
work done by black women and men of the past
that enabled change within the American social
and political systems. Black History Month at JCAL
highlights the individuals and cultural pageantry that
has helped build, inspire and shape both Southeast
Queens and the whole of the USA.
“We are honored to showcase the amazing cultural
events of the many African-American artists and
community leaders that are joining us over the
month of February. We invite all to join us and
celebrate the history and contemporary life of
African-American communities through the arts
and cultural activities.”
Executive Director, Cathy Hung
CELEBRATE
BLACK HISTORY
MONTH with
JAMAICA CENTER
FOR ARTS AND
LEARNING
JCAL Presents Black
History Month’s
It’s a Jam! Omar Edwards
The History of Tap Dance America
Tix: $15 (kids and seniors $5)
Thursday, February 21st, 7 pm - 9:00 pm
@Jamaica Art Center 161-04 Jamaica
Avenue
The Apollo’s Sandman Omar Edwards
An evening with legendary tap artist and rhythm
master Omar Edwards with Special Guest
musicians and vocalists. Come to Jam. Bring your
own specialty instrument - shoes, voice,
music...this is a percussive thing,
It’s Free If you’re gonna Jam!
Bring It ! Let’s Make Some Noise!
For Info: katepeila@jcal.org
RSVP: www.jcal.org
Fanike African
Dance Troupe
Dancing! Drumming!
Celebrating
Culture & History
Saturday, February
23, 2019, @7:30PM
@Jamaica Performing Arts Center (JPAC) 153-10
Jamaica Avenue
General Admission/$25; Child/$10
Directed by Patricia Ghizamboule Robinson, the Fanike
African Dance Troupe will perform with their signature
libation, drumming and dance performance honoring
the ancestors of the African Diaspora.
Ticket information (917) 704-0051.
ORAL HISTORY/FILM: Double Victory &
Freedom Flyers of Tuskegee/Speaker
Saturday, February 23, 2019 @3 pm - 5 pm,
@Jamaica Art Center (JAC) 161-04 Jamaica Avenue
Free
In this inspiring account of the Tuskegee Airmen –
the country’s first African American military pilots –
historian J. Todd Moye captures the challenges and
triumphs of these brave aviators in their own words,
drawing on more than 800 interviews recorded for the
National Park Service’s Tuskegee Airmen Oral History
Project.
Denied the right to fully participate in the U.S. war
effort alongside whites at the beginning of World
War II, African Americans – spurred on by civil rights
organizations such as the NAACP – compelled
the prestigious Army Air Corps to open its training
programs to black pilots, despite the objections of its
top generals. Thousands of young men came from
every part of the country to Tuskegee, Alabama, in the
heart of the segregated South, to enter the program,
which expanded in 1943 to train multi-engine bomber
pilots in addition to fighter pilots. By the end of the war,
Tuskegee Airfield had become a small city populated
by black mechanics, parachute packers, doctors, and
nurses.
Freedom Flyers brings to life the legacy of a determined,
visionary cadre of African American airmen who proved
their capabilities and patriotism beyond question,
transformed the armed forces – formerly the nation’s
most racially polarized institution – and jump-started the
modern struggle for racial equality.
Poet/Author Sherese
Francis Hosts
Kinetic: A Literary Jam
Series
Thursday, February 28, 2019
@7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
@Jamaica Arts Center (JAC)
Theater 161-04 Jamaica Avenue
General Admission: $5.00 suggested donation
Kinetic, a new literary series,
“words in motion.” “All
in” with spoken word and
sound poetry, film, writing
workshops and a traveling
library. Collaborations with
musicians and dancers and
J. Expressions mobile library
of authors and writers in
Southeast Queens. Authors
will be present to sign books.
PUBLIC ART, Standing Ovation:
African Diva Project
Ongoing, Feb 1 – March 25,
@JPAC Fence
The outdoor art installation Standing
Ovation: African Diva Project in Queens
celebrates some of the biggest black
female singers in entertainment.
Standing Ovation is part of Margaret’s
larger ongoing series, The African Diva
Project, created to reconnect Black art,
music, and performance to its African
roots. Standing Ovation is comprised of
select figures taken from The African Diva
Project, printed to life-size, and installed on
the Jamaica Performing Arts Center lawn.
“This installation represents a selection of popular
African American women soloists whose songs and
celebrity have touched many lives. The black women
behind these masks are entertainers given high spiritual
and ritual significance. As African Divas, they become
powerful representatives of changing times shouldered
with the support and grace of ancestral Africa.” –
Margaret Rose Vendryes
Saturdays, Feb 23, 30 @
10am – 3pm
JCAL School of the Arts
classes @JAC studios
161-04 Jamaica Avenue
Every Saturday, students of
all ages converge at JCAL to
attend its diverse arts classes. Our School of the Arts
help students pursue creative expression, passionate
learning and artistic development. We offer more than
40 different classes for children, teens, adults & seniors
to choose from.
Our teaching artists provide exposure to a wide
variety of art forms including theater, dance, ceramics,
keyboard, cartoon animation and so much more.
Winter/Spring Semester: January 12 - June 1, 2019
Annual Student Recital: June 8, 2019
The Presenting
Organization:
Jamaica Center for
Arts and Learning
(JCAL) Host
Organization:
Jamaica Center for Arts
and Learning (JCAL)
founded in 1972, is a
multidisciplinary arts
center based in the
heart of Southeast
Queens, the most
densely culturally
diverse community
in the United States.
Its mission is to offer high quality and accessible arts
and cultural programing that expose communities to
all disciplines, encouraging greater understanding
and participation in the arts. JCAL’s cultural campus
includes two buildings, the Jamaica Arts Center (JAC)
161-04 Jamaica Avenue and the Jamaica Performing
Arts Center (JPAC), located 1 block away 153-10
Jamaica from JAC helping build a Jamaica Avenue
Cultural Corridor.
JCAL, an incubator for creativity, is a 47-year-old
multidisciplinary urban arts center built by and for
the Southeast Queens community. JCAL programs
represent and serve the diverse communities of
Queens (over 185 languages spoken) and NYC. More
than 52,000 people of all ages and backgrounds come
through our doors engaging in our children, teens, and
adult programs including multicultural series in music,
theater, and dance performances; film screenings
and lectures; contemporary visual arts exhibitions; inschool
artist residencies; a series of nearly 50 different
art workshops; and free or low-cost after-school and
summer programs.
JCAL’s programs are made possible by Mertz
Gilmore Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State
Council on the Arts, Greater Jamaica Development
Corporation, Resort World Casino, American Airlines
and individual contributions.
JCAL receives ongoing general operating support from
the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with
support from Mayor Bill de Blasio, Queens Borough
President Melinda Katz, the Queens Delegation of the
New York City Council, New York City Councilman
I. Daneek Miller, Councilman Barry Grodenchik,
Councilman Rory Lancman, and Councilwoman
Adrienne Adams, New York State Regional Economic
Development Council.
All inquiries regarding this project should be sent
to Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning Director
of Programs and Artist Services, Catherine Peila:
katepeila@jcal.org.
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