Featured Image: Rejoice, the Muhlenberg College Gospel Choir
Meet Filmmaker Mick Caouette, Performer Nicki Powerhouse, Vocalist Imani Uzuri
Allentown, PA – Be inspired, explore, create and engage with African American art, history, culture and activism as the Allentown Art Museum celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day with music, performance, film, readings, collage and art on Monday, January 15th. The doors open at 11:00am to the joyous sounds of Rejoice, the Muhlenberg College Gospel Choir, a spirit-filled musical ensemble comprised of students from various places, races and creeds. The gospel choir is truly reflective of the diverse interests and ethnicities within the Muhlenberg College community.
Nicki Powerhouse speaks to the human spirit in her performance art that involves storytelling, poetry, song and movement. She’ll have two performances, at 2:00 and 2:45pm. At 3:30pm African American vocalist and composer Imani Uzuri performs her original work.
Filmmaker Mick Caouette will take questions from the audience following a screening of his documentary Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall & The NAACP at 1:00pm. The film documents attorney Thurgood Marshall’s triumph in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate America’s public schools. Marshall won more Supreme Court cases than any lawyer in American history. A short film on Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and John Paul Stevens follows the documentary.
At noon in the Butz Gallery, gather around Faith Ringgold’s print Here Comes Moses to hear the story of Henry Ossawa Tanner’s childhood as told in Ringgold’s book Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dream Comes True. Tanner’s work, Lion Licking Paw, is on display in Trexler Gallery. Tanner served as an inspiration for the Harlem Renaissance artists and generations of painters.
Be inspired and create from noon to 4:00pm in the Crayola classroom. Check out William T. Williams’s print depicting jazz legend Thelonious Monk hanging in the Butz Gallery, and then create your own artwork inspired by the colors, rhythm and characters of Williams’s style. Or, use markers and collage materials to make wearable pins and stickers inspired by Faith Ringgold’s powerful political art Here Comes Moses.
The Museum invites visitors of all ages to celebrate, explore, create and engage with African American art, history and culture on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Events will take place throughout the Museum on January 15th from 11:00am-5:00pm.
The admission-free celebrations begun on MLK Day continue on Thursday, January 18th, during the Museum’s Third Thursday programming, which begin at 5:30pm.
- 5:30pm Artist Workshop: Collage and Weaving with Devyn Leonor Briggs
- 6:00pm Poetry Out Loud competition
- 6:00pm Tours highlighting the permanent collection of African American Art
- 6:30pm David Driskell: “Innovations and New Trends in African American Art”
- 6:30pm Arts and Culture Trivia
The Allentown Art Museum’s MLK Day Celebration is supported by the HeARThstone Project, which is rooted in the belief that art can, and does change lives; and that in collaboration with their communities’ art museums can be significant partners in the creation of safe neighborhoods. The HeARThstone Project is supported by the generosity of the Harry C. Trexler Trust.
The Allentown Art Museum is open Wednesday-Sunday 11am-4pm and until 8pm on the third Thursday of each month. Museum admission and programs are always free on Sundays and Third Thursdays.
For more information about the Allentown Art Museum events, programs, the Museum Shop and the Café, check our website or Facebook or follow us on Twitter. If you have a question about our programming email us at askus@allentownartmuseum.org.
Information and image provided to TVL by:
Angela Zanelli
VP Development and Communications
Allentown Art Museum
