DOWNTOWN — Friends, family, and teachers came together Saturday night at the Museum of Fine Arts to show support for the Lakewood High School Jazz Ensemble and the 54th Ave South Jazz Combo’s Black and Gold Benefit Concert.
Special guests John Brown, Belinda Womack, and Butch Thomas also performed with the students as well as rub some of their knowledge and talents off on them.
The concert was created to fund the ensemble’s trip to New Orleans in March for the Crescent City Music Festival, a national music competition. This event benefits the students by introducing them to other musicians and helping them improve their chops.
Lakewood High School Jazz Band director Michael Kernodle said the students will also get the chance to go to Loyola University in Chicago.
“They will do a master class and meet with musicians,” Kernodle said.
This would be the second year they get to attend this event.
“Last time we went, it changed their whole lives,” Kernodle added.
David Deister, a Lakewood High School senior, plays lead trombone in the ensemble and can’t wait to get to New Orleans.
“I’ve heard we will tour schools and maybe I’ll get to audition,” Deister said.
After he graduates, Deister plans to join the Army. He hopes to keep playing music, by auditioning for the Army band.
But even though the money was an important factor, it wasn’t the main goal of the event, according to Kernodle.
“The biggest thing is exposure to the community and to let them know what we are doing,” he said.
In order to make the trip more affordable, Kernodle hopes to raise around $13-$15,000 by March. Tickets for the performance were $20. There was also a silent auction, which raised $950.
The event kicked off with a New Orleans style entrance. Kernodle lead the ensemble playing the trumpet while the band followed behind him passing out beaded necklaces as they performed.
Everyone appeared to enjoy the event dancing in their seats as the jazz rhythms filled the room. The students on stage were having fun and playing with enthusiasm.
“[I] thought they were amazing,” said Kristie Dowling, an English teacher at Lakewood High School. “I’m really proud of them.”
MIDTOWN — Two lively women sang a freedom hymn as they walked into a small, open gallery with no seats left empty.
Historically important African American women Mary McLeod Bethune and Zora Neale Hurston shared their stories of perseverance during the “Two takes on a Dream” speaker series at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum Thursday, Feb. 11. The series is called “Two takes on a Dream.”
McEwen’s portrayal of Hurston kept the room laughing out loud. Hurston came to life through her Southern accent and sass when sharing about her experiences and in her back-and-forth with her friend Bethune. She has been portraying Hurston since 1991.
During the performance, the audience felt Hurston’s pride in her heritage when she said, “I was a negro baby, a negro girl and a negro woman.”
Hurston was born in Alabama, but moved to Florida with her family as a toddler. She was a daughter of former slaves and dedicated her life to studying, collecting African American folklore and writing, according to her biography. She was influential to the Harlem Renaissance, a time when famous African Americans shed light on their culture through their creative and scientific work.
“Zora inspires the creative spark for me,” McEwen said. “The way she shared her work inspires me to share my work.”
McEwen said that the genius in these two women is “frightening.” The two scholars contemplated on the fact that these two women were very busy and the span of their influence was immeasurable to society.
“People are afraid of Zora’s intellect,” McEwen said when referring to the author’s books.
McEwen’s favorite book written by Hurston is “Dust Tracks on a Road” because Hurston tells the story of her own life. Her struggles in life and the way she handled them were inspirational, according to McEwen.
Bethune was an unbelievable woman, according to Odom who has been portraying her for public programs for the humanities council since 2006.
“She did so many incredible things that people may not be aware of,” Odom said. “If (people) knew they would have personal pride because they can relate to her as an African American woman.”
Originally from South Carolina, Bethune was born of former slaves and the only member in her family of 17 siblings that attended school, according to her biography. Odom shared her story with the audience and in her performance expressed Bethune’s love of learning and sharing her knowledge. While reminiscing on her childhood during the performance, Bethune remembered how much she enjoyed teaching her family the things she learned at school since they didn’t have the opportunity to receive a formal education. She was an educator since she was 10.
The name Bethune-Cookman University may ring a bell when people think of this determined woman. After teaching in Georgia and South Carolina, Bethune’s dream was to open her own school so she did with $1.50 in Daytona, Florida, and five students, according to the university’s history.
“She was able to do so much in one lifetime,” Odom said. “She was able to pull people together of diverse backgrounds in order to achieve a common goal.”
One of the accomplishments that impresses Odom the most was Bethune’s access to the White House. She advised five presidents and founded the National Council of Negro Women, a civil rights organization to help the progress of African American women in society.
Odom’s study and research of Bethune has inspired her to be more like the civil rights activist and educator.
“After what would Jesus do is what would Mary McLeod Bethune do,” she said.
Odom has written a new book which will be released soon. She tells the story of Dorris Rossreddick who was the first African American woman to sit on the Hillsborough County school board and to chair it, according to the author.
McEwen, like Odom, is also a writer, and artist too. Her work will be displayed during an art show at Studio 620 in March.
John Hayner, an 80-year-old philatelist from Clearwater attended the reenactment. Hayner was there because he went to Eatonville the day that Zora Neale Hurston’s stamp was issued on Jan. 24, 2003 and he let her know at the end of the performance when guests were welcome to interact with the presenters.
Hayner lived in British Guinea as a child and appreciates African American history because he experienced being the “only white boy in school.”
Miriam Romo, 35, of Meadowlawn, attended the performance to listen to poetry and for her son.
“My son is mixed. The more I know, the more I can transfer on to him,” Romo said referring to African American history. “It’s important to know where you’re coming from.”
Another mother, Ginande Jester from Clearwater, was also there for her 15-year-old daughter and is committed to go to events like this monthly with her.
“My objective is to support local events so my daughter gets a sense of history,” Jester said.
Jester’s daughter, Zxamara, said it was cool that the women being portrayed had Florida roots.
Today their legacy lives on.
“Someone said we’re dead,” Bethune jokingly said to Hurston when the audience had time to converse with them after they finished the performance.
ST. PETERSBURG — As part of the nationwide Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, a substantial crowd gathered as a mural by local artist Ya La’ford was unveiled on the north side of the historic Manhattan Casino in Midtown Monday.
Titled “King’s Dream Unite,” La’ford and 25 students from MYcroSchool Pinellas, a tuition-free, dropout recovery, public charter high school, painted the expansive 30’x30’ mural in one week with what was described as a “tremendous amount of paint.”
“King’s Dream Unite” is a community mural where La’ford admits the community helped her realize Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.
“The mural is about unity, this is about how we’re connected, this is about how we can pull and collaborate the community together where I am not only exposing you to the visual but also to the dance and to the music, I am kind of forging these forces together to have something so impactful to the community,” she said.
The event Monday began with the roar of the Mt. Zion Progressive Community Marching Band. The 13-percussion piece ensemble’s force and presence brought the crowd alive with the beat of their drums and crash of their cymbals.
“The pounding of the drums represents our heartbeats coming together,” said La’ford at the end of the event.
Jacqueline Williams Hubbard, Esq./Pres., St. Pete Chapter, The Association for the Study of African American Life and History spoke of the importance of the mural’s location on the side of the historic Manhattan Casino. For 40 years the Manhattan Casino played an instrumental role in south St. Petersburg arts, entertainment, and cultural development in the 1920s when Jim Crow segregation laws were still prevalent.
The Moving Mural, a collaborative dance and song presentation performed by dancer and rehearsal director Helen Hansen French, singer Becca McCoy, MYcroSchool students and Mt. Zion Impact Dance Ministry confirmed that arts and entertainment still thrive in Midtown.
La’ford along with Deputy Mayor Dr. Kanika Tomalin, Councilwomen Lisa Wheeler-Brown and Darden Rice and Chris Steinocher, president and CEO St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon as the tarp simultaneously raised, revealing the unified efforts of a diverse community.
The mural consists of a black background with silver intersecting geometrical lines starting from the base of the building like tree roots that grow upwards to form the trunk and then a circular crown. The crown embraces two illuminated circles, one inside the other. A description by La’ford is essential to understand the magnitude of the piece.
“Black represents the color of our people, the lines forge together in silver, silver being one of the oldest and most precious metals, as precious as our people. The three circles represent all of us rotating around each other for infinity. The geometric patterns represent how all of our lives intersect, everyone’s life journey may have traversed to the left or to the right but they will all intersect at some point. The center two circles are illuminated to acknowledge the presence of a higher being connecting us all together.”
La’ford consistently involves children in her art to show that art is in everything that they do and see. This project provided MYcroSchool Pinellas students with the opportunity to participate in something they would not have normally done.
The mural unveiling also included a free book giveaway for students and children courtesy of Keep St. Pete Lit and Bluebird Books. Students received bookmarks where they could write their response finishing MLK Jr.’s famous sentence “I have a dream.”
Laura Mulrooney is a reporter in the Neighborhood News Bureau at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
It is the first time that St. Petersburg, Florida, has a radio station with content specifically directed to its African American community.
According to its founders, this radio will help black people to be able to express their concerns, frustrations and to show their talent. Without a doubt, Black Power 96 is an example of empowerment in Midtown that can be emulated by anyone, everywhere.
ST. PETERSBURG – It was just another night where the sound of music and laughter filled the air of this vibrant community. It was Midtown in the 1940s bringing out the African-American culture. But, it was not always that way. It took brave and valiant individuals to build the lively and joyful culture of Midtown. Then, Sidney Harden and his grocery store was one these individuals, and today, it is Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy.
Sidney Harden’s advertisement on the outside of the grocery store’s wall. Published in St. Petersburg Historic 22nd Street South by Peck and Wilson, 2006, 68.
In 1942, Harden opened ‘Sidney Harden’s Grocery Store’ on 22nd Street South. It was the place to get cultural food and resources throughout the community, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The grocery store also served local residents in times of need and comfort.
Harden was a neighbor and hoped the best for his community. According to a staff report from the City of St. Petersburg Community Preservation Commission, when local residents didn’t have enough, he gave and was known to hire residents for minor labor in exchange for food. He is remembered for his donations to different charities in the hope to make Midtown a better place for those in the community.
In the 35 years since the closing of Sidney Harden’s Grocery Store, that same passion and determination can be seen in Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy, better known as Mr. B and Mrs. B, and their hope to build a stronger and diverse Midtown. Despite a tough start and individuals’ perception of Midtown as being a rough place, the Brayboys decided to start their own business. They even have a reply for those with a misconception of Midtown.
“We’re putting the neighbor back into the hood,” said Elihu Brayboy. “Therefore it is a neighborhood.”
The café was renovated to meet modern day demands while keeping the design and layout of the historical Sidney Harden’s Grocery Store.
Although it was not what they intended, it became a place they now hold dear and true. Like Harden, the Brayboys are trying to invigorate the community. With just the start of a café, the Brayboys hope other businesses will see the opportunity Midtown has to offer.
“We value it and our view is it’s a great area and all it needs is love,” said Elihu Brayboy.
Named after Elihu Brayboy’s mother, Mary ‘Chief’ Brayboy Jones, a native of South Louisiana who catered to many celebrities such as Teddy Pendergrass, the Chief’s Creole Café serves a taste of Creole dishes including shrimp and grits, spicy jambalaya and Creole gumbo. Along with a delicious meal, customers have a choice of a spacious, elegant and vintage dining room or the outdoor patio setting to enjoy.
Chief’s Creole Café celebrates their first year anniversary on Nov. 1. The celebration starts with a momentous ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 30 with Mayor Rick Kriseman. The event leads into the ‘Masquerade Under The Stars’ with live entertainment and dancing.
“We are ready for the storm,” said Kenny Roberts, a restaurant employee. “We know it’s coming.”
This is just the start of a new and diverse Midtown. The Brayboys and their employees are definitely excited, but so are those in the community.
“I really think that it’s a real treasure to this community,” said Cumberbatch. “For what (the Brayboys) are providing I think it’s really something good to help in the resurgence of this community to getting back to those memorable iconic places that so many residents in this community are familiar with.”
Story and photos BY PHIL LAVERY NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – Drawn by low rent and abundant space, artists have flocked to the northern flank of Midtown in recent years. In once-empty warehouses, they are painting on canvas, sculpting in copper and blowing hot glass into objets d’art.
One of the converted warehouses is called Five Deuces Galleria, a three-building complex of studios and galleries at 222 22nd St. S that is a production center for art and aspirations.
Meet four of the artists who work there.
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Melissa Harasz
She comes from a family of artists and painters and has been painting since she was 9. Now 55, Harasz swims competitively and specializes in underwater scenes.
She pays a little more than $400 for an air-conditioned studio.
She says she likes the vibe of the Warehouse Arts District and its proximity to downtown.
“My process begins with a photograph. Once I study the photo, I’ll allow my imagination to take over.”
This oil-on-canvas painting of a man swimming underwater is typical of Harasz’s work.
This scene is one of her favorites.
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Maureen McCarthy
Art was just a hobby for her until her divorce a year ago.
Now she restores furniture full time and paints with oil on canvas.
After looking all over town, McCarthy, 44, decided to rent a studio at Five Deuces.
“There were studios where the rent was cheaper, but they felt cold. I looked for three weeks and settled on this place. My studio has got a warm feeling to it, which is very conducive to my creative process.”
McCarthy likes to paint landscapes, like this scene of a Florida sunset.
This is an old living room table made new, an example of the small tile pieces that McCarthy likes to use in her restorations.
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Sean Alton
Alton, 55, works with copper and glass sculpturing. “We get a lot of foot traffic” at Five Deuces, he says. It “has a good draw, being in the Warehouse Arts District. It’s a pretty cool place.”
“I consider myself a surrealist sculptor, incorporating people with animals in a non-sexual way. I started working with metal as a jeweler. In 1995 I left that job and began experimenting with copper sculpting, eventually adding glass to my sculptures.”
In copper sculpting, a mass of copper is melted in a kiln, usually several times. Once the cooper is removed, Alton does the enameling, which is adding class to the surface. Here is a finished copper sculpture with enamel.
In this 2-foot-long piece, an alligator is eating a person alive.
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Jim Corp
He has been a woodworker, a fisherman, a real estate developer and a business owner. Now Corp, 68, is an artist who says his work is half digital, half oil-on-canvas.
“The process of creation between digital prints and hand paintings are different, as one requires a computer and the other is by hand. How I find my inspiration, however, is pretty much the same. Even working with digital prints, coming up with an idea and then manifesting that into something tangible, is exactly the same as painting by hand.”
This is one of Corp’s digital prints. Its abstract style is a theme in most of his digital work. The printer he uses is expensive and requires a special ink toner.
This hand painting has the look of Andy Warhol. Notice the Campbell’s Soup cans at the bottom.
Photos and story BY KELSEY AL NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – The last locomotive passed through in 1967, but the 1926 brick depot that once helped connect the city to the rest of America is full of life.
Instead of freight cars and citrus, the old depot on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue S and 22nd Street is home to working artists and art appreciators. The St. Petersburg Clay Co. renovated the freight depot in 2000, and the Morean Arts Center for Clay leases year-long studio spaces to six resident artists. A café is open Monday through Saturday.
In the café, there are old photos, model trains and a mural depicting an active train platform. There is also a poem written by the late Rosalie Peck, who grew up in Midtown, became the first black female student at St. Petersburg Junior College and later co-authored two books on the city’s black history with journalist Jon Wilson.
The poem is titled “Remembering 22nd Street: The Way We Were.” It describes the once-bustling street when it was the heart of the black community during decades of segregation:
“It will never be the same, but before our very eyes, it may breathe life again. It may survive and surprise.”
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The depot sits alongside the Pinellas Trail, which follows the abandoned railroad corridor. The structure is unaltered, with high, sloping wooden ceilings and a large façade in the front.
In addition to the six studios, space is available for selling finished pieces to visitors, children’s summer camps, and large gatherings such as weddings and receptions.
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Artist Kodi Thompson works on his final installation at the Center for Clay. He says that his time in the studio building his portfolio helped him get into graduate school for fine arts. The freight cars, caution cones, and brick wall piece that Thompson is working on in the photo are all made of ceramics.
All six resident artists teach classes. Non-professionals in the community can rent work space by the month, enjoy the friendly atmosphere, and use the variety of electric and gas kilns. They must supply their own clay.
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Three times a year, in January, June, and October, a 21-foot outdoor Anagama kiln is fired up. The partially underground tunnel, built according to ancient Japanese techniques, is filled with burning wood to fire ceramic pieces.
Artists must envision the way that the flames, smoke and heat will move through the kiln and arrange pieces accordingly, with minimal space between works to avoid breakage. Here, artist Tyler Houston finishes glazing a piece he built to be put into the kiln.
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Over 1,000 clay artworks are loaded into the kiln, which runs 24 hours a day for 12 days. Location in the kiln affects the finish on the pieces, ranging from ashy to glossy, since each work is touched in a unique way. The results are diverse, with an organic texture that cannot be achieved with modern techniques or duplicated.
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Loading the kiln is a meticulous process that takes several hours and requires teamwork and planning. The Anagama kiln is truly a community project.
Kathleen Rumpf (not pictured) is a 63-year-old artist who says she has five felonies stemming from her political activism for peace and justice.
“When the process is finished and the pieces come out of the kiln, it’s like the opening of a tomb,” she says. Members of the center form an assembly line to unload the finished works, carefully passing and admiring each piece one by one.
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Temperatures are monitored and recorded regularly. They are expected to peak around 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. The wood that fuels the kiln is donated by tree trimming companies that have no use for their scraps. During breaks, the work crew enjoys smokes, beer and snacks.
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Loretta Lamore monitors smoke within the kiln from the rear. When visibility increases, she yells, “In the damper!” That alerts the crew up front to gear up with protective gloves and masks so they can load more wood. Approximately every five minutes, she yells, “Stoke please!” That’s the signal for reloading.
About 45 seconds after wood is added, a flame can briefly be seen rising from the chimney.
One the kiln is done firing, the pieces need to cool down for several days before they can be unloaded and admired. Some will be sold, and some will be kept by the artists for personal use.
Lauren Hensley | NNB Glass artist Jake Pfeifer spent a month as an artist-in-residence at the Duncan McClellan Gallery in Midtown.
BY LAUREN HENSLEY NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – When he was 5, Jake Pfeifer got a grim diagnosis. He had a malignant, inoperable tumor behind his left eye.
Doctors told his parents he had a 5 percent chance of surviving the next three years.
“The cancer was a very rare childhood malignancy and the prognosis for that particular cancer was very, very poor,” said his mother, Sonya Pfeifer. “We made funeral arrangements for Jake three times.”
Her son underwent aggressive radiation and chemotherapy treatments and spent much of his childhood in the hospital. But he beat the odds. He was pronounced cancer free when he was 15, although he still has side effects from the treatment.
Now 27, Pfeifer is a glass artist with a keen appreciation of life and a remarkable portfolio. He has studied under several renowned glass masters and his work has appeared in galleries across the country.
He spent May as an artist-in-residence at the Duncan McClellan Gallery at 2342 Emerson Ave. S in St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District. His exhibit will be on display there through July 6 and then become part of the gallery’s general collection.
His childhood illness shaped his outlook on life, Pfeifer said. On his website, he compares himself to the Phoenix, the bird of mythology that arises from the ashes to new life.
“I feel I have emerged from the fire, and I am living the life I love; and as chance would have it, I now find myself working with fire,” he said. “From the fire emerge beautiful things – first, my life and, second, the art that I am able to create.”
Glass blowing is hot, delicate work. The artist shapes a mass of glass, which has been softened by intense heat in a furnace, by blowing air into it through a tube, adding color and then cooling it slowly.
Pfeifer graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2010 with a bachelor’s in fine arts and completed a two-year residency at a glass studio in Louisville, Ky. He has been an intern or apprentice at hot shops and galleries around the country, and he has a business – Hot Glass Alley LLC – at a shop in Reading, Pa.
Pfeifer said cancer taught him the value of commitment and determination, and he compares his work with glass to his cancer treatment.
When he is working on a piece of hot, molten glass, he said, he has to stick with it to the end, “even if the outcome is not what I desired.” The piece “undergoes many changes … (and) can almost be lost” but usually turns into something beautiful.
Pfeifer’s diagnosis was a malignant, stage 3 rhabdomyosarcoma – an inoperable tumor behind his left eye that was penetrating his brain.
He was so ill that his doctors sent him on a “Make-a-Wish” trip with his brothers and sister. By the time he was 10, he had attended the funerals of many children whom he had befriended during his long stays in the hospital.
His mother is a nurse and his father, Michael, is an endocrinologist. Their experience in the medical field affected the way they approached their son’s diagnosis and treatment.
“We decided early on, just from watching other patients and families with this disease, that this could either destroy our family or bring us closer together,” said Sonya Pfeifer. “We circled our wagons and made sure that we grew together as a family.”
Pfeifer’s parents were determined that he would not only survive, but thrive. Despite the intense cancer treatments, their son kept up with his education.
“We never allowed Jake to use his illness as an excuse for anything,” Sonya said. “He was never held back in school even though he was in the hospital.”
The radiation made reading a little more difficult, but Pfeifer excelled in other areas.
Lauren Hensley | NNB Cancer taught him the value of commitment and determination, Pfeifer says.
“He was a math genius and he was very good with his hands,” his mother said. “He just naturally gravitated towards things that were comfortable to do. Glass has a component of science in math in it. He has to be able to understand the chemistry and the measurements; that was easy for him to grasp.”
Pfeifer says his interest in glass was sparked at the age of 14 when he saw glass artists at work in Bermuda. His mother recalls his creative inclinations beginning much earlier than that.
“He always liked Legos and coloring and building blocks. Most of the things that he liked to do were three dimensional, like glass is,” Sonya said. “He has always been very good with working with his hands. He has a lot of fine motor skills and is very agile.”
Michael Rogers, one of Pfeifer’s professors at RIT, said the faculty is proud of his accomplishments in art.
“I was aware of some health issues, but Jake didn’t talk about it,” Rogers said. “He’s a guy who didn’t want to be defined by an illness” and refused special treatment.
“It’s great to see Jake being successful and doing what he loves,” Rogers said.
During his month at the Duncan McClellan Gallery in St. Petersburg, Pfeifer devoted attention to his latest project, a series inspired by his heritage.
“My grandfather was 25 percent Cherokee. I know I’m only Native American by a small percentage, but it really shaped the way that I grew up,” Pfeifer said. “Mom always had Native American art in the house, and it was something we talked about regularly.”
The vases and bowls in this series feature bright colors and patterns.
“Traditionally, Native American art wouldn’t have all of the bright colors that my pieces do, but that’s my interpretation of my heritage,” said Pfeifer. “I like to think of it as a combination of who I am and where I came from.”
Now that his stint in St. Petersburg is over, Pfeifer said, Florida may well figure in his future. He is considering moving to Florida and opening a studio in Sarasota.
“I love the South,” he said. “I grew up in Kentucky and I’m really looking forward to building my business in an area that I love,” Pfeifer said.
Want to know more?
Jake Pfeifer’s work will be featured through July 6 at the Duncan McClelland Gallery, 2342 Emerson Ave. S in St. Petersburg and then go into the gallery’s general collection. His website is at hotglassalley.com.
Courtesy of Five Deuces Galleria
Melissa Harasz
Maureen McCarthy
McCarthy likes to paint landscapes, like this scene of a Florida sunset.
Sean Alton
Jim Corp
Candice Reshef | NNB
