“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment” examines the rich history and cultural significance of the legendary Harlem theater, tracing the story from its origins as a segregated burlesque hall to its starring role at the epicenter of African American entertainment and American popular culture. The first exhibition to [...]
Bill Pickett Championship Rodeo, Washington, DC
The annual Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo is named for a rodeo star whose career spanned over four decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bill Pickett, the “Dusky Demon,” born in Texas in 1870, was of black, Cherokee and white descent. He is credited with inventing bulldogging, a method of wrestling a 1,000 [...]
Step Afrika, Washington D.C.
Step Afrika is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping……..a competitive dance practiced on college campuses among black fraternities with roots in African dance traditions. The group was founded in 1994 by Brian Williams, a Howard University graduate and Alpha Phi Alpha stepper who was struck by the similarities [...]
Capital Jazz Festival Preview | Washington D.C.
It’s time once again for the largest contemporary jazz and soul festival in the country, the 18th Annual Capital Jazz Fest continuing its long-standing, highly anticipated 3-day music showcase June 4-6, 2010 at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland. A “weekend of cool jazz & soul”, this year’s lineup is sure to electrify audiences, [...]
Harriet Tubman Collection Unveiled by NMAAHC
Photo: A photograph from the 1880s of Harriet Tubman (left) with some she helped to escape from slavery, along with members of their families. Portrait photo in frameby Tarby Photo, Auburn, NY, n.d. Photo: Michael Barnes, Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has acquired a collection of artifacts documenting [...]
The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present | Anacostia Community Museum, Washington D.C.
The Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum presents “The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present, November 9, 2009–July 4, 2010. This traveling exhibition sponsored by the National Hispanic Cultural Civic Center spans five centuries of Mexico’s “third root,” people of African Descent. The early African presence in the Americas is normally associated with the [...]
