Welcome back. We're all this month
we are celebrating Black History
Month and one organization is
hosting several free performances
and programs across Hampton Roads to
highlight African American art and
culture throughout the entire year,
not just this month.
So here to tell us more about
it as tomorrow Smithers,
the executive director of Virginia
African American Culture Center and Asia
Noel of the Arts for Learning Virginia,
you all thank you so much for
joining me this afternoon.
First, thank
you for having us. Thank you. Thank
you. To me about how you all came
together to talk to you about this
pairing and kind of. This teamwork,
well, ours for learning for
Genie and the Virginia African
American Cultural Center have had
a long history of partnership.
The former board director Doctor Emilia
was on our board arts for learning,
and she's the founder of VBAC.
So her and our CEO,
Chris Everly decided to pair
together and decide how we can be
able to bring African American
culture to the Hampton Roads
region and eventually throughout
the state is still building.
Their facility,
amazing. And you know, we've mentioned
a couple times if there are free events
happening that people can attend,
not just events but performances.
Talk to me about this because people
hear the word free and automatically
they're here. Hey, yes, we are
a little free face. Yes. So we
have with this partnership is going to
2024 and it's 50 free performances and
workshops and it's all over Hampton Roads.
And we've had several of them
started last week and the week
before and the end of January.
And so it's going.
22024 SO the families in any city
in the county really too are able
to see with these performances.
They're able to learn arts and
culture throughout their events,
and our artists have been amazing.
They've been staying after asking
any questions about arts and
culture and also ask about the
historical representation of
what they're doing on stage.
Why is this so important to bring to
our Community, not just one city,
but really the entire coastal
area as a whole? So I think it's.
Important.
I think she mentioned representation.
When young people see themselves on stage,
see themselves on film,
it encourages them and inspires
them that if they can see it,
they can be it.
I do just want to make mention that this
wouldn't be possible without our funders,
which is the Virginia Tourism Corporation,
Virginia Commission for the Arts,
as well as the National
Endowment for the Arts.
So we're thankful to them
and we're excited for that.
And a lot of people, you know,
they've heard that they can go catch
saying things for free performances.
What are some of these performances that
they might be able to attend? And see,
so we have dialing Pritchett
coming up at the Hampton History
Museum on February the 18th.
We have performances in Portsmouth coming up.
We also have a performance of Valerie
Davis coming up at the Suffolk Center.
Wow. And we also have performances
Downing Gross in Newport News.
We also go all the way out to Danville.
It's September with Nathan Richardson.
Everybody knows him as Frederick Douglass.
So you could just follow our social
medias because we have Facebook events.
We'll always.
Adding new performances and
workshops all over,
so just be on the lookout for those things.
Why is this so important to you too?
I can tell as soon as you walk in.
Why is this
so such a big deal for, especially
for me, I grew up in downtown Newport News
and just see representation in my community
and the communities that's around me.
It's a it's phenomenal.
It's you're able to be seen.
You'll be able to celebrate it not just
for black history but all throughout the
year and just being able to like cheer for.
Yes, this is what my culture did,
this is my heritage, and students and
families are able to celebrate that.
That's not from this background
that's able to celebrate that.
It's like, well,
I'm really proud of the African American.
Community and just for Jaya,
but the whole country
for me, I mean the arts are part of who I am.
It's in the fabric of Tamar.
And I can imagine or imagine who I
wouldn't be if I didn't have opportunities
like this to experience the arts.
I wouldn't be where I'm at today.
So that's why it's important for me.
And my last question for anyone who
has heard all this and they just
need a little bit more information,
where can they go? So you could
follow our social media.
We have Facebook arts for
learning for Jaya or Instagram.
Arts with the number 4 learning VA
Ladies, thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
We'll be right back with
more news and weather.