African American History Month in CLT

How, where, and why CLT is honoring the 35th African American History Month.

Today, the first day of African American History Month 2011, the New York Times‘ arts section published an article about the National Black Theater, a playhouse on 5th Avenue that’s been a cultural and community staple in Harlem since its founding in 1968 by activist, producer, and playwright Barbara Ann Teer. It was established, originally, as a place for Harlem’s black community to produce and stage their own works, a concept that didn’t exactly have a ton of momentum at the time.

…[Teer] wrote of the need to build cultural centers “where we can find out how talented we really are, where we can be what we were born to be, and not what we were brainwashed to be, where we can literally ‘blow our minds’ with blackness.”

Over the years, the National Black Theater has seen lectures, concerts, and workshops from the likes of Maya Angelou and Nina Simone; today, it faces well over a million dollars in property tax debt, and will likely foreclose over the next few months. The loan defaults began in the early 2000s, when its business partners and supporters, like the cosmetics company Nubian Heritage, went under.

But the theater’s story is also a cautionary tale about what can happen when arts groups extend beyond their comfort zone to find revenue, as is increasingly popular in the poorly financed arts world. Ms. Teer was a pathfinder in such efforts. From the day in 1983 when she bought the building, a former jewelry factory, she hoped to finance her work with rent from the other tenants. “The real estate subsidizes the art,” she liked to say.

Though Charlotte’s art scene has certainly taken a few hits during the recession, we’re lucky enough to have an African American cultural community that’s still green and growing. But stories like that of the National Black Theater are a reminder that ultimately, support for community arts comes from the community itself.

Here’s a few ways that Charlotte is honoring the 35th-ever African American History Month:

Discovery Place’s Race: Are We So Different? Opening this weekend is an all-new exhibit in Discovery Place that’s trying to probe the community with questions about race and the science of genes. There are more than 30 parts to the 5,000 square foot exhibit, including "Who’s Talking," in which visitors are challenged to match a human face with a voice being payed; "Living with Race Theater," in which you’ll hear stories from a variety of people who have struggled with their racial identity, and "Traveling Genes," which uses computer simulation to study how genes create skin color.

Harvey B. Gantt Center’s Black Music After 1968: The Photography of Jim Alexander: Atlanta-born Jim Alexander was a documentary photographer for over 30 years, photographing African American musicians. Since 1968, he’s taken pictures of soul, rock, and gospel singers, and you can see the project on display at the Gantt through June. He’ll also speak about his work on February 17 at the Gantt Center.

The Levine Museum of the New South’s Courage: The Carolina Story That Changed America: You may have already heard about hte return of this nationally renowned exhibit, which tells the story of families in Clarendon County, SC who were among the first to sue for equal education in the 1950s. February is, however, an appropriate month to catch the exhibit, and on February 6, you can catch a screening of Jail, No Bail, a new documentary about the 1961 sit-ins in Fort Mill, SC.

On Q Productions’ Day of Absence, March 2-5 at the Duke Energy Theater: On Q Productions, Charlotte’s only African-American theater company, will stage this dark comedy by Douglas Turner Ward under the direction of Quentin "Q" Talley. It’s a reverse-minstrel show (i.e., performed in whiteface) about an old-fashioned Southern town wakes up one day to find all its black citizens missing.