The James Brown African American Room is proud to present our 2024 Black History Celebration. This year’s theme, Create, Inspire, Elevate: African American Contributions to the Arts, reflects a rich and dynamic exploration of the profound impact the Black and African American communities have had on various forms of artistic expression. This theme not only pays homage to the historical significance of African American contributions but also highlights the ongoing and evolving influence within the arts and shines a special spotlight on Newark and New Jersey artists.
This year we have an exhibit and four programs that we hope will spark creativity, inspire, and elevate our community!
The exhibit
The programs
The Gantalist: The Life and Inspiration of Jerry Gant
Saturday Feb. 3, 2024 at 2PM
Our 2024 Black History Celebration opening event was an engaging panel discussion of Newark artists that honored the life and inspiration of the renowned Jerry Gant. Linda Street, Noelle Lorraine Williams, Suliman Onque, and Pierre Coleman shared their insights into Jerry Gant’s impactful work. The conversation extended beyond Gant’s art to explore the support and challenges faced by Newark artists. Jamara Wakefield guided this enlightening discussion as the moderator. The documentary “The Gantalist”, produced by Pierre Coleman was also screened, click here to watch it on Youtube.
Download the flyers for this event
Learn more about the panelists:
Linda Street
Instagram @pinkdragonmgt
Website: pinkdragonartistsyndicate.com
Linda Street (she/her) has built her brand on bringing art to the people, combining skills from her decades-long career in corporate management with an artist’s imagination and love of cultural storytelling. Through her brainchild, Pink Dragon Artist Syndicate LLC, Street orchestrates mergers between art and community, artist and audience, and the public and private stakeholders so vital to ensuring that art has reach and permanence. Read more
Noelle Lorraine Williams
Instagram @blackpower_19thcentury
Website: blackpower19thcentury
Noelle Lorraine Williams is an artist, historian and public humanities professional. Read more
Suliman Onque
Instagram: @slimsuliart_world
Website: www.3theartway.com
Suliman Onque began creating art in preschool and it was at this young age, that his ingenious talents were born. Some of Suliman’s works include Art exhibits with greats such as Willie Cole, Kortez Robinson, Jose Emanuel Cruz, Kween Moore and Jerry Gant. Being commissioned on various mural projects for the City of Newark. Read more
Pierre Coleman
Instagram: @pierremcoleman
Website: pierremcoleman.com
A native of Newark, NJ, Pierre attended Howard University’s School of Communications, earning his degree in Film Production. He is the founder of Solid Brick Entertainment, a company that prides itself in producing compelling stories and creating innovative projects. Pierre worked on the critically acclaimed HBO series “The Wire” and his exensive production experience led him to work on films starring Queen Latifah, Will Smith,Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Aniston, Tina Fey, Steve Carrell and Taraji P.Henson. Read more
Moderator
Jamara Wakefield
Instagram @jamaraproducer
Twitter @jamaraproducer
Jamara Wakefield, 2024 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award winner, is a Black queer writer and creative who writes for publication and stage. She is the Digital Content Producer at WBGO. Wakefield is the author of The Black Student’s Guide to College Resistance Volume 1: Student Loan Debt. It is a manual that addresses the colonial history of the American Higher Education system and proposes resistance strategies for students regarding debt and institutional power. Her performance work is cross genre, combining music, poetry, theater, music and improvisation to create public performance. Read more
From Stage to Screen: Black Artists Reflect on Performing Arts
Thursday Feb. 6, 2024 at 6PM
This program explored the world of performing arts from stage to screen. Distinguished panelists Anthony Goss, Celeste Bateman, Nefertiti Nguvu and Richard Wesley discussed the dynamic world of performing arts, with a focus on Newark’s scene and its connection to Amiri Baraka. This panel was moderated by Pamela Morgan.
Learn more about the panelists:
Anthony Goss
Instagram: @antgoss
Website: antgoss.com
Anthony T Goss is an Award winning actor and emerging playwright from Boston, Ma, based in New York City. His first passion was basketball and he never dreamed acting would take him all over the world. But ever since he discovered theatre; acting and writing have become his life’s work. Read more
Celeste Bateman
Website: celestebateman.com
Celeste Bateman started her company, Celeste Bateman & Associates, LLC in 1997. The firm specializes in arts and cultural programming, arts management consulting, special events production, arts advocacy and (previously) the Nia Network, a roster of artists and speakers of African descent who specialize in and present art forms relative to the African Diaspora. Read more
Nefertiti Nguvu
Instagram: @hollywdafricans
Website: hollywoodafricans.com
Nefertite is a New York based independent filmmaker who recently made her foray into episodic television directing. Her credits include Hulu’s EMMY® NOMINATED dramatic series Wu-Tang: An American Saga, the Starz original drama series Power Book II: Ghost, Showtime’s original comedy series Flatbush Misdemeanors, and 20th Television’s Peabody Award winning reboot of The Wonder Years, amongst others. Read more
Richard Wesley
Richard Wesley was born in Newark, New Jersey and graduated from Howard University. He studied Playwriting under the tutelage of Owen Dodson and Ted Shine. A member of the New Lafayette Theater from 1970 through 1973, he served as Managing Editor of its Black Theater magazine. Read more
Moderator
Pamela Morgan
Instagram @wimnewark
Website: wim-n.com
Pamela Morgan is Executive Director of Women in Media-Newark and a board member of WBGO.
Our Stories to Tell: Black Authors Reflect on the Art of Writing
Thursday Feb. 15, 2024 at 6PM
Next we celebrated the literary contributions of Maisy Card, Kim Coleman Foote, and Valerie Wilson Wesley. The conversation was moderated by Naomi Extra and the four writers shared their experiences navigating the freedoms and potential hurdles in their writing careers.
Learn more about the panelists:
Maisy Card
Website: maisycard.com
Maisy Card is the author of the novel These Ghosts Are Family, which won an American Book Award, the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize in fiction and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction. Read more
Kim Coleman Foote
Website: kimfoote.com
Kim Coleman Foote is the author of the novel, Coleman Hill (SJP Lit/Zando), inspired by her family’s experience of the Great Migration from Alabama and Florida to Vauxhall, New Jersey, c. 1916–80s.
An award-winning writer of fiction and memoir, Kim’s work has appeared most recently in The Best American Short Stories 2022, Iron Horse Literary Review, Ecotone, and The Rumpus. Read more
Valerie Wilson Wesley
Website: valeriewilsonwesley.com
Valerie Wilson Wesley writes mysteries, novels, and children’s books. Her latest mystery A Glimmer or Death–An Odessa Jones Mystery will be published in February 2021. She is the author of nine Tamara Hayle Mysteries, which include When Death Comes Stealing and Dying in the Dark. Most of her mysteries have been Blackboard Bestsellers. She has also written paranormal romances under the pen name Savanna Welles. Read more
Moderator
Naomi Extra
Website: naomiextra.com
Naomi Extra is a poet, writer, cartoonist, and scholar. She received her PhD in American Studies from Rutgers University, Newark. In both her creative and scholarly work, she explores the themes of agency and pleasure in the lives of black women and girls. Her current research focuses on black feminist engagement with sex-positivity through the work of three under-explored writers of the 1970s and 80s. Read more
And it Don't Stop: 50 Years of Hip Hop and Beyond
Thursday Feb. 29, 2024 at 6PM
Closing our 2024 Black History Celebration program series was an exhilarating discussion moderated by Jamara Wakefield, on the legacy of Hip Hop beyond its 50th year. Dan Charnas, Lyle Omolayo, Sah-B, and El Da Sensei had a rich conversation on the history and current scene of Hip Hop in New Jersey and beyond.
Learn more about the panelists:
Dan Charnas
Instagram: @dcharnas
Website: dancharnas.com
Dan Charnas is a bestselling author, award-winning music and business journalist, producer of records and television, and professor. Recipient of both a PEN Literary Award and a Pulitzer Fellowship for Arts Journalism, he is the author of four books; was the co-creator and executive producer of the VH1 TV series The Breaks; and is an Associate Arts Professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University. Read more
Lyle Omolayo
Instagram: @lyleomolayo
Website: lyleomolayo.com
Lyle Omolayo has rocked over 500+ stages within the United States and internationally. He has opened up for many legends, pioneers and unsung heroes of music such as Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaata, Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five, Naughty By Nature, Immortal Technique and many more. Read more
El Da Sensei
Instagram: @el_da_sensei
Website: catharsis-productions.com
El Da Sensei stepped onto the hip-hop scene as one half of the Newark, NJ, duo, the Artifacts. The Artifacts first rose to fame with the hit “Wrong Side of the Tracks.” After El Da Sensei and his partner Tame-One where invited to the Stretch and Bobbito show at WKCR in New York, the group was signed to Big Beat/Atlantic Records. Read more
Sah- B
Instagram: @sahbeezy
Website: www.sah-b.com
Sah-B, derived from her middle name, Sakinah and maiden name Britton was born in Newark, NJ but raised in East Orange and was heavily Influenced by Roxanne Shante , Salt -n-Pepa, and Sparky D . So much so that she began writing rhymes at the tender age of 11. At the age of 14, she joined Sport D’s rap crew, the Revolutionary Posse of Terrace, which included DoitAll Du, from the Lords of the Underground and Redman. Read more
Moderator
Jamara Wakefield
Instagram: @jamaraproducer
Twitter: @jamaraproducer
Jamara Wakefield, 2024 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Award winner, is a Black queer writer and creative who writes for publication and stage. She is the Digital Content Producer at WBGO. Wakefield is the author of The Black Student’s Guide to College Resistance Volume 1: Student Loan Debt. It is a manual that addresses the colonial history of the American Higher Education system and proposes resistance strategies for students regarding debt and institutional power. Her performance work is cross genre, combining music, poetry, theater, music and improvisation to create public performance. Read more
Happy Black History Month!
– JBAAR Staff
The origins of Black History Month
The origins of Black History Month in the United States can be traced back to the early 20th century, to the pioneering efforts of historian Carter G. Woodson and his collaborators. Recognizing the need for a dedicated platform to highlight the contributions of Black individuals to American history, Woodson and fellow advocates campaigned for an annual week focused on the celebration of Black history. February was deliberately chosen for this observance due to its alignment with two historically significant dates: the birthdays of Frederick Douglass, a prominent abolitionist and civil rights advocate, and U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
Black History Month had a grassroots beginning, it started to gain national attention by the mid-20th century. The federal government officially recognized and designated February as African American History Month in 1976. Since then, U.S. presidents have consistently affirmed this recognition through annual pronouncements, solidifying Black History Month as a pivotal occasion for acknowledging, appreciating, and commemorating the profound impact of Black individuals on the nation’s history and culture.
Learn more about Black History Month
Browse the links below for more Black History Month content and resources from institutions like the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and more.
The Association for the Study of African American Life and History
JBAAR Black History Month Staff Picks of content & resources for teachers, home schoolers, and lifelong learners!
Primary sources, ready to use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids curated by blackhistorymonth.gov
51 episodes of an engaging illustrated podcast about Black American History featuring writer and poet Clint Smith
Gather the kiddos and watch the queen Angela Basset read the childrens book Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews and illustrated by Bryan Collier.
Award-winning graphic designer George McCalman’s Illustrated Black History celebrates African Americans and their contributions to politics, science, literature, music, and other fields through stunning illustrations.
Starting in a post-MLK assignation world explore the rising call for Black Power, redefining American culture, politics, and society in this PBS series with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Using the life stories of five major American intellectuals: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W. E. B. Du Bois, and legendary activist Angela Davis Ibram X. Kendi explores how racist ideas were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial inequities
Starting in a post-MLK assignation world explore the rising call for Black Power, redefining American culture, politics, and society in this PBS series with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Explore materials documenting the African American experience including documents, online exhibits, blogs, educational resources, video resources, and more from the National Archives of African American History.
Interested in more? Check out JBAAR Online!
JBAAR ONLINE is our new hub for connecting you to NPL’s digital resources! Audiobooks, eBooks, movies, music, online classes, and more all FREE with your Newark Public Library card!
