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Celebrating Juneteenth 2025

Celebrating Juneteenth 2025

 

For JUNETEENTH 2025, we have curated a group of video interviews from the ArtSpeak archives with prominent people in the arts.

Beginning March, 2020, many of the videos below were recorded via Zoom. Click on any video link (below the images). You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

 

 

Poet Major Jackson

 

MAJOR JACKSON is the author of six books of poetry, including “Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems” (2023), “The Absurd Man” (2020), “Roll Deep” (2015), “Holding Company” (2010), “Hoops” (2006) and “Leaving Saturn” (2002), which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review.

 

 

 

Juliet Romeo: Filmmaker, Journalist, Activist

 

JULIET ROMEO is an award-winning writer and director known for her dedication to bold, authentic storytelling. A Brooklyn-born Trinidadian filmmaker based in South Florida, she brings her lived experiences as a disabled Caribbean woman into her work, creating narratives that explore identity, resilience, and social justice.

 

 

 

Leonard Pitts, Jr. — Writer

 

LEONARD PITTS, JR. (b 1957) is a commentator, journalist, and novelist. He is a nationally syndicated columnist and winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

 

 

“Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney at the Hampton House.” 2022. 40 x 60 inches. Mixed-media on canvas. Raymond Elman.

 

In Memoriam: Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney

 

DR. ENID CURTIS PINKNEY (1931-2024) passed away on July 18, 2024 at the age of 92. She will be most remembered for saving the Hampton House in Brownsville from the Miami wrecking ball, and raising the funds to restore it to National Historic Registry standards. She was the founder of the Historic Hampton House Museum.

 

 

 

The Portraits of Artist Addonis Parker

 

OneUnited Bank, the largest Black owned bank in America, sponsored Le Art Noir on December 2, 2021 and purchased the first “From Paris with Love” non-fungible token (NFT) created by internationally acclaimed artist ADDONIS PARKER, which pays tribute to renowned entertainer and civil rights activist Josephine Baker.

 

 

 

 

Conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson: Born to Make Music

 

JERI LYNNE JOHNSON made history as the first Black woman to win an international conducting prize when she was awarded the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. Since then she has continued to break barriers in Europe and the US as the first woman and/or African-American woman on the podium for many orchestras and opera companies in the US and Europe. Johnson is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra.

 

 

 

Charles Blow: NYT, BNC, and “The Devil You Know”

 

CHARLES M. BLOW has been a New York Times Opinion columnist since 2008. His column appears on Monday and Thursday. Mr. Blow joined the New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and quickly became the paper’s graphics director, a position he held for nine years. He is the author of “The Devil You Know” and “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.” In May, 2021, “Prime with Charles Blow” premiered on the Black News Channel (BNC).

 

 

 

The Creative Adventures of Brigitte “Bibi” Andrade

 

BRIGITTE “BIBI” ANDRADE a multi-talented artist, Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, and former model, is a 33 year veteran of the Beauty Industry, and the creator of a unique series of comic books.

 

 

The Multi-Faceted Aurin Squire, Playwright for “A Wonderful World”

 

AURIN SQUIRE is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and reporter. He is a recipient of the 2014 Lecomte du Nouy Prize from Lincoln Center and the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellowship at The Juilliard School. His new play, “A WONDERFUL WORLD,” premiered at the Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach in December, 2021.