Neighborhood News Bureau

Author: Katie Callihan

  • Gallery celebrates second year, highlights Florida-born artist

    Gallery celebrates second year, highlights Florida-born artist

    REPORTING BY KATIE CALLIHAN AND MARLA KORENICH
    PHOTOS BY KATIE CALLIHAN
    NNB Reporters

    MIDTOWN-During February of 2014, a massive snowstorm known as PAX froze and shut down the entire heartbeat of the city of Atlanta.

     

    Mitchell, 33, talks with a Guest about her art pieces. She says, “ I usually say a prayer at the beginning of the week and then come up with paintings I want to do. The Lord never disappoints.”
    Mitchell, 33, talks with a Guest about her art pieces. She says, “ I usually say a prayer at the beginning of the week and then come up with paintings I want to do. The Lord never disappoints.”

    The major power outages left more than 100,000 people in the dark without heat for days, and for some, weeks. (source: http://time.com/6747/over-200000-without-power-in-georgia-as-winter-storm-descends/)

     

    During that snowstorm two years ago, Melissa Mitchell was one of the many stuck inside. With nothing else to do, her curiosity peaked and she decided to pick up a paintbrush for the first time.

    Within the first two weeks of her new painting career, Mitchell had sold 20 pieces. This was clear evidence that she had something special worth pursuing.

    Mitchell said, “I was always colorful and creative, but I never painted before because I didn’t think I could.”

    Little did she know that just a couple years later, she would be the featured artist at Gallerie 909’s second year anniversary celebration this past Sunday in Midtown, St. Petersburg.

    Walking into the gallery, natural light bounced onto her collection from a large window next to the front door.

    Many laughs were shared as stories were told about the different pieces of art displayed.
    Many laughs were shared as stories were told about the different pieces of art displayed.

    Her vibrant pieces covered the main entry white wall on the right-hand side of the room.

    They added life that displayed bold, black lines contrasted by a pop of bright colors.

    “My pieces are organized chaos. The black lines give balance,” Mitchell said about her painting style.

    Spread across a white shelf and scattered under her wall of paintings, Mitchell was also selling handmade earrings. Mitchell said that she started to make earrings for herself because she couldn’t find anything else to buy that matched her bright clothes.

     

    “Chanel West came all the way down from Boston to Tampa in August. She now bakes from her home to support her two daughters.”
    Chanel West came all the way down from Boston to Tampa in August. She now bakes from her home to support her two daughters.

    Mitchell has already sold over 300 pieces of jewelry without any traditional advertisements. She said that she only executes Facebook and Instagram as her network and marketing tools.

    “I’m definitely a millennial,” said Mitchell. “All of my business is either from social media or word of mouth.”

    This was not Mitchell’s first time in the hot seat. Since day one, Mitchell has already participated in about seven art shows and has sold over 150 pieces total.

    Bright fabric like orange sherbet ice cream was wrapped around Mitchell’s head.“This is my artwork too,” she said. She explained that printing her paintings on fabric is another project she’s going to start working on for others to purchase as well.

    Patrick Collins, neighbor to the gallery and owner of Deuces BBQ, poses with one of his cooks smoking ribs and shrimp during the peak of lunch hour.
    Patrick Collins, neighbor to the gallery and owner of Deuces BBQ, poses with one of his cooks smoking ribs and shrimp during the peak of lunch hour.

    During the celebration at Gallerie 909, Mitchell sold at least 12 pieces, but she said that wasn’t her biggest success of the day.

    “I spoke to an artist that is now ready to restart. If I encourage anyone, it is a good trip,” Mitchell said.

    Mitchell was just one of the many artists that were welcomed by Carla Bristol, Gallerie 909’s owner and event curator.
    Gathered around tables of plates with fresh baked mini-cheesecakes and BBQ pork sandwiches painters, musicians, sculptors, and friends all shared one reason for being there.

    They just love Carla Bristol.

    Annie Tyrell, owner of Annie’s Beauty Supply, gave Bristol credit for her success.

    Annie Tyrell, owner of Annie’s Beauty Supply, poses with her niece Brenda Jackson.
    Annie Tyrell, owner of Annie’s Beauty Supply, poses with her niece Brenda Jackson.

    Tyrell moved her beauty supply store to be Bristol’s neighbor. Their storefronts now face each other on the Deuces. Tyrell said that Bristol found the new location for her.

     

    Tyrell followed Bristol’s advice.

    “At my old location, I was dead, and now, I am alive,” said Tyrell. “She is the life behind the Deuces.”

    Creative Pinellas executive director Barbara St. Clair, was one of many in the crowd and said, “She’s a dynamo. Every time she does something, it’s great.”

    “This is a place for connecting,” said Bristol.

    Bristol hopes to expand the gallery to even include art that people can wear.

    Bristol also mentioned that she wants larger workshop classes for the future.

    Gallery owner and event curator, Carla Bristol, demonstrates how she greets every guest with a hug.
    Gallery owner and event curator, Carla Bristol, demonstrates how she greets every guest with a hug.
  • Local artists revive the Deuces

    Local artists revive the Deuces

    REPORTING BY KATIE CALLIHAN AND MARLA KORENICH
    PHOTOS BY KATIE CALLIHAN
    NNB Reporters

    MIDTOWN – On Saturday, February 27th, Midtown hosted St. Petersburg’s first Black Arts Festival. This event pulled various vendors from across the world into one vacant, grass lot at the corner of 9th Avenue South and 22nd Street South.

    The owner of Gallerie 909, Carla Bristol, curated and hosted the community event.

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    Carla Bristol stops to speak with one of her many visitors gazing at the various collections of artwork located at 909 22nd street south.

    “I decided to do this event as a culmination for black history month,” said Bristol.

    The Southside Blues Brothers were playing live facing 22nd street south. You could hear the combination of the piano, guitar, and deep, soul-filled vocals from a mile away.

    Bristol selected this particular band to attract and to remind the community members of the momentum that the Deuces could still carry once again.

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    The Southside Blues Brothers added energy and soul to the Black Arts Festival.

    “I wanted to see the energy on the corner again – to see what the corner would be like,” said Bristol.

    The weather was cool, the sun was shining. By 11am, the layers of sweaters and jackets started to peel off and the venders were adding their final touches to their displays.

    A stimulating energy was in the air and the community started to trickle in just as Bristol had hoped.

    Across long, rectangular tables and under the roof of white, square tents, each artist displayed great spectrums of bold colors and textures; you knew that there was a story behind everything.

    Handmade jewelry with large stones, paintings with texture, lotions imported from Africa, and other goods were all being sold at fair prices.

    In the middle of all the vendors, three art stations catered a variety of crafts for children. You could catch them zipping through and winding between booths playing tag with decorated masks on their faces; colorful feathers falling from them.

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    Artist, Ramel Jasir demonstrated his unique painting style that consisted of smooth lines of collected dots – his own spin off of pointillism. Jasir said that he used to be a musician. Without prior sketching or making outlines, he says, “The music takes the line in different directions.”

    A few artists, “Freddy Fred” and “Zulu Painter” from the Bloom Art Center participated in their first art show. “Zulu Painter” was painting live against his easel. He said that he finds inspiration by first looking at magazines. When he finds certain images that he likes, he then paints them together as one collective image.

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    Sehou Saho from Senegal imports shea butter from his homeland in Africa to make and sell. “The shea butter helps people and I like to help people,” said Saho.

    Another contributor in the festival was traveling Folk Artist, Sandy Hall.

    Hall, mother of six, stood in the middle of a small, shaded tent that stretched about as far as both of her fingers could point.

    “This is my life,” she said as she directed her guest’s eyes across her display of paintings that varied in different rectangular shapes and sizes.

    Hall shared that growing up, her family loved to tell stories.

    “Our stories kept us together as a family. I can’t tell the stories, but I can paint them,” said Hall.

    When asked how she learned to paint, Hall’s story began to unfold.
    In 2001, TV show ‘Bob Ross’ was playing in the background of a hospital room.

    Hall was diagnosed with cancer.

    Her mobility and her creativity were limited to the stark walls of the hospital that seemed to be closing in.

    One day, Hall’s nurse explained that she would soon be expecting a visitor, Hall’s mother. This was the last thing that Hall was emotionally prepared for.

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    Folk artist, Sandy Hall.

    Hall was faced with a deep trance that forced a paralyzing apathy that had taken over her mind and body. She had no desire to do anything.

    “The nurse kept trying to get me to crochet or do puzzles,” Hall said.

    To make her mother happy, Hall decided that she would try to look busy, try to look entertained and try to hide the pain.

    “It wasn’t until my mother came and I had to be on my best behavior,” said Hall.

    For the first time in her life, Hall picked up a paintbrush and an empty canvas.

    Out of desperation, she began to paint.  

    Since that day, for Hall, everything changed. Hall succeeded in beating cancer and her newly discovered talent put all six of her children through school.

    Traveling in a passenger van, Hall said, “I used to line up my kids in an assembly line and have them help me with picture framing.”

    They say that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life.

    Today, Hall still makes a living selling her paintings online and in various art festivals across the country.

    Overall, St. Petersburg’s first Black Arts Festival was a great success and it inspired all ages to find and maintain their creativity.

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    From Gainsville, Jordahn-Syhmone & Giahnna Nicholé demonstrate making their custom, copper jewelry pieces.
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    The duo hopes to soon find a storefront here in St. Petersburg. “We started experimenting with friends and making jewelry and thought, we can sell this,” they said.

    Bristol plans on putting together more community events like this.

    For more information about Bristol’s gallery, Gallerie 909, stop by at 909 22nd St. South.

    Gallerie 909 is a stop on St. Petersburg’s Second Saturday Artwalk. The next art walk will be on March, 12th. There is free parking and entry into all participating galleries and studios.

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    Artist, Fanta Celah from Chicago explained that her jewelry pieces take from 30 minutes up to 18 hours. She started designing and making her own pieces around 1990 when she saw her friends doing it first – so she picked it up herself.

    For more information about the art walk, please contact the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance at 727.518.5142 or email them at info@stpeteartsalliance.org.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Centerpiece of Midtown loses its limelight

    BY JASON SAAB
    NNB Reporter

    [Edited by Katie Callihan]

    MIDTOWN – The Manhattan Casino opened its doors in 1927 and was the centerpiece of Midtown St. Petersburg.

    It was founded by Elder Jordan, a Midtown community member and local entrepreneur. His ultimate goal for the casino was to create a space for the Midtown community to come as equals, let go of fear and dance off all tension during harsh segregated times.

    It was the community’s go-to spot, also visited by some of the greatest jazz musicians of that time.

    The Manhattan Casino thrived as a part of the “Chitlin’ Circuit.” This was a route traveled by performers including B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Duke Ellington.

    Alvin Burns, the former trumpet player for The Manzy Harris Band, also played at the Midtown casino.

    In the film “Remembering the Manhattan,” Burns said, “There were bars, pool rooms, drug stores, grocery stores, and the Manhattan Casino was the nerve-center for the black community.”

    Al Williams, former trumpet player for the George Cooper Band, said in the film “Remembering the Manhattan,” “People wanted to go to New York, they were traveling there, some couldn’t go there, some did make it, and others never went, so the Manhattan Casino was named for that. It was the closest thing to New York they had.”  

    The Manhattan was a place that not only had a friendly atmosphere, but a structure that brought such rare access to such timely, famous musicians.

    Since its golden era, the Manhattan Casino has become a shell of its former self. Its undoing was ironically because of the desegregation movement.

    When desegregation went into effect, the black community in Midtown became more accepted in the downtown area where they were formerly banned.

    “Blacks could now visit locations outside of their traditional boundaries of the segregated years, but few whites came to places such as the Manhattan,” said Shnur, the archivist in special collections at University of South Florida St. Petersburg.

    Once the Midtown community members felt free to move outside of Midtown, they left.

    With both the black and white communities of St. Petersburg frequenting only the downtown area, the abandoned Manhattan Casino closed its doors in 1966.

    In 2013, as part of former Mayor Bill Foster’s ‘Foster’s Forty’ plan, the Manhattan Casino reopened its doors after being left vacant for almost 50 years.

    Despite the efforts to remodel Midtown’s old treasure, it’s hard to say that the old, historic landmark will ever be the same centerpiece it once was.

    The Manhattan Casino currently hosts Sylvia’s Restaurant on the bottom floor and an empty dance hall used exclusively for private events on the top floor.

    The community’s once ‘go-to’ spot has now become an empty hall of vacant seats.

    Norman Jones, a community consultant for the film “Remembering the Manhattan”, said: “It was the end of an era, end of segregation, beginning of integration, and our community went to sleep.”

  • County launches new program for struggling schools

    BY ANNA STEBBINS, IVY CEBALLO, DAVID STONER, JADE ISAACS AND KATIE CALLIHAN
    NNB Reporters

    MIDTOWN- Midtown schools are still undergoing the process of bringing in money for teacher training, in hopes for a better classroom atmosphere, but could the most important part be the passion of the teachers?

    After being deemed “Failure Factories” in 2015, Midtown schools continue to attempt to increase classroom success and teacher longevity, but the cure to the academic disease might lie in the educator’s passion to teach.

    In January of last year, Pinellas County school officials pledged to spend $1 million and partner with the New Teacher Project, based out of Brooklyn, New York.  The program, Scale Up for Success, could live up to its name for Pinellas County schools by offering teacher training, teacher’s assistance and mental health experts on hand.

    The program includes five St. Petersburg schools: Campbell Park Elementary, Melrose Elementary, Fairmount Park, Lakewood and Maximo.

    The partnership has had its start at Campbell Park Elementary, where turnaround efforts are a focus.

    Third-year principal at Campbell Park, Robert Ovalle, says that he is dedicated to the concentration of teacher training and support from all faculty and staff.

    “Our ultimate goal is to support classroom teachers. They are the teachers working hard on the front line,” said Ovalle.

    Ovalle is dedicated to use this ongoing opportunity of additional funding to not only train his teachers, but also give him the reinforcement to add further support as an entire school unit.

    “There are certain obstacles here that come up but that’s what my job is, to prepare teachers to have those skill sets,” said Ovalle.

    As for the Scale Up For Success program, which is expected to provide more advantages and will continue to provide stability in the classroom environment, according to Ovalle, it will only be successful if teachers are passionate about what they do.

    “Teachers stay at schools like this because they have that deep passion to give kids a quality education,” said Ovalle.

    Campbell Park Elementary third-grade teacher, Jordan Blakeney, conducts daily morale and welfare checks with her students on her classroom floor.

    “Some say, I haven’t had breakfast, I’m checking in,” said Blakeney, “If I have anything that I can give them, I will.”

    She uses this exercise to assess how to help her students’ performance throughout the day.

    “Whatever they feel like they need to express, they can say, and if they don’t want to say anything, I still require them to say I have nothing to say, but I’m checking in,” she said.

    For the school year of 2007, Campbell Park Elementary received a letter “B” grade performance at a 70 percent student minority rate. In consecutive years, the grade dropped from “B” to “C” to “D” and, finally, to “F”, according to the Florida Department of Education’s accountability report.

    The latest “F” grade is from the 2013 school year, at an 88 percent student minority rate.

    “Just because we’re an F doesn’t mean that we’re not teaching, we’re not working,” said Blakeney, “It’s the exact opposite actually.”

    Blakeney said that Scale Up For Success has helped her reflect on her teaching skills and find ways to challenge herself and her students. The program has provided her and other participating teachers with a math coach, a reading coach and a behavior coach to offer them individual feedback.

    “We neglect a lot of our own lives to support the school and our families. I know of co-workers who stay extra to help kids. Their kids at home aren’t seeing them,” said Blakeney.

    The same outlook about teaching is expressed by Connie Fowler, a Pinellas County teacher of 28 years.

    “The money doesn’t matter; teachers teach to teach. They love kids.  I didn’t come to this school to get a bonus or paid for the extra half an hour.  I’m just drawn to working with minority students who live in poverty,” said Fowler, who taught at Lakewood Elementary for 17 years.

    Over the past 80 years, Midtown’s educational foundation has been set, dissembled, and reassembled in a way where the pieces do not fit back together. Some pieces are broken and some pieces are missing.

    It was not until 1971 when the School Board voted to desegregate the schools across Pinellas County.

    Rules used to be active in making sure that schools were not more than 30 percent black. This caused students to be bused away from their neighborhood schools and instead receive their education in a mixed and fair learning environment.

    Complaints about the inconveniences and costs of busing these students away from their neighborhood schools caused a reverse in the zoning system in 2007.

    In December of that year, the School Board decided on a plan that stopped the integration and rezoned students to their neighborhood schools.

    This, in return, caused schools to lose their mixed social and economic learning environment. In time, classrooms turned into mostly all white and all black classrooms. This action resulted in a staggering drop in academics across the board, especially in Midtown.

    Students started failing at rates that teachers couldn’t keep up with. This created a cycle of discouraged and stressed out teachers who could not handle the mess.

    “I watched over 50 percent of a very dedicated staff walk out the door. I passed but lost most of my friends to the cut and then were fully a neighborhood school,” said Fowler.

    Today, the education of Midtown has been an experiment of trial and error.

    Leaving Lakewood Elementary in 2015, Fowler has seen the evolution of the school system after the re-segregation and zoning changes.

    The Scale Up for Success Program combined with the reinforced passion of teachers might finally be the answer that Midtown schools are looking for.

    “Teachers work harder than ever before and are so stressed. Money doesn’t even come into play, they do it because it’s who they are,” said Fowler.