IN TRAVEL & ARTS TODAY: Arts writer Matthew J. Palm writes about listening and learning from the stories of Black people.
“Go out and tell our story, let it echo far and wide,” is the first line of “Make Them Hear You” from the musical “Ragtime.”
Lynn Ahrens’ lyrics are sung by the character of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Black musician who has resorted to desperate measures to draw attention to racial injustice.
As the nation grapples with making meaningful change to guarantee equal treatment for everyone, it’s time to really listen to Black people’s stories. And learn from them.
At last Sunday’s Black Artists for Black Lives rally in downtown Orlando, actor Stelson Telfort put it more bluntly, telling white people they’re “going about it the wrong way” if their support doesn’t include “listening to those black voices that are yelling at you.”
Even when not in direct conversation, there are ways to listen to Black voices. Every artform is based on storytelling. And by engaging both the intellect and the emotions, arts and cultural endeavors often make excellent
teachers.
Because of COVID-19, not every cultural institution is open. Orlando’s Wells’Built Museum of African American History and Culture, for example, remains closed.
But to “meet” some Black Central Floridians of today, check out the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, which is run by the Crealde School of Art.
Currently, the Winter Park gallery is hosting “Storytellers 18: See Through Our Eyes,” which is a look at the historically black neighborhoods of DeLand. The project gave Black student photographers a chance to explore the visual arts while contemplating their heritage.
The exhibit, created in partnership with DeLand’s African American Museum of the Arts, shows how important faith has been to the Black community. Churches appear in multiple photos: New Jerusalem, Royal Temple Free Methodist, Greater Union First Baptist, St. Paul Holiness. But it’s the portraits, and the accompanying information about these Central Floridians, that stick with you. Real people with real stories, they are the faces of America.
Of course, to appreciate the circumstances of today, we have to understand history.
That’s where a cultural program by the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center proved helpful last week.
Julian Chambliss led an online hourlong look at “White Myths, Black Lives” that detailed how institutional racism became part of the nation’s fabric. The eye-opening presentation provided a fascinating context for how — and why — cultural imagery still fuels passionate feelings. Just consider how Aunt Jemima pancake syrup, a makeover for Disney World’s Splash Mountain and a “Gone With the Wind” disclaimer became instant lightning rods for fevered social-media battles.
The presentation by Chambliss, a university professor and historian, was the first in a new “Strategies for Action” series by the Holocaust Center. The next program is titled “Ally or Accomplice: Multiple Pathways to Racial Justice” and takes place at noon July 16. And if you want to watch “White Myths, Black Lives,” go to holocaustedu.org/virtualprogram-recordings.
A more visual experience can be found at Orlando Museum of Art, where paintings by the Florida Highwaymen create a monumental exhibit titled “Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen.”
The African American school of painters, which formed in the 1950s, received their moniker because they sold their Florida-celebrating works door to door. Their race meant they were shut out of the usual means of selling art.
That, of course, is a story in itself. But although as a group they were best known for their landscapes, the works on view at the museum depict street scenes and people, which suggest their own stories.
Filming is underway at the museum for an upcoming feature film and documentary series that will amplify the Highwaymen’s voices even more.
Sometimes, the voices take to the streets.
When I heard about last weekend’s Black Artists for Black Lives march, I thought it would be a unique listening experience. And it was.
In speeches and song, I heard Black artists share their personal challenges in the entertainment industry, their new determination to speak up, their calls for change and their hope that change might actually be accomplished.
I also heard those like Stelfort, who urged people of my race to do better.
Just as the arts can change the way we look at the real world, events of the real world can change the way we look at the arts.
When I see “Ragtime” again someday and the performer playing Coalhouse launches into those first beautifully somber notes of “Make Them Hear You,” I wonder if I will be affected differently, maybe feeling the character’s emotion more deeply, maybe absorbing the words with a sadder but wiser understanding.
I hope it’s a different experience. That’s how we know we are evolving, a process in which I think the arts have a crucial role to play.
I’ll let Coalhouse have the last word.
“I could not put down my sword when justice was my right,” he sings. “Make them hear you.”
Resources
To find out more about the programs and exhibits mentioned, contact these local organizations:
Hannibal Square Heritage Center: hannibalsquareheritagecenter.org or 321-594-3922; book your visit ahead of time
Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center: holocaustedu.org or 407-628-0555
Orlando Museum of Art: omart.org or 407-896-4231; book your visit and buy tickets ahead of time