Amarie Cemone Gipson, a curator, archivist and new research fellow at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), has found a brick-and-mortar space for her growing library of books about Black artists and movements.

Gipson launched The Reading Room HTX as a stylish online resource featuring more than 300 titles on the last day of February, Black history month. Concurrently, CAMH was becoming more involved in a large-scale initiative to support Freedmen’s Town—a district in the city’s Fourth Ward that was built by formerly enslaved people—with documentation, infrastructural funding and arts programming that centres the existing community.

Freedmen’s Town was built by and for around 1,000 formerly enslaved people who laid their brick roads by hand in the mid-1860s. Artists-in-residence are imagining the community as it might look now if the City of Houston had protected the area and allowed it to flourish. The district includes seven sites listed as part of Unesco’s Routes of Enslaved Peoples project.

The Reading Room, a library filled with books by and about Black artists, with a focus on the South, collected by a Houston native, is now poised to open nearby. “If you want to understand American history, you have to understand the South,” Gipson says.

The Reading Room’s 900 sq. ft space will open to the public next week in the former Barbara Jordan Post Office, which was named for the Houston-born civil rights activist and first Black woman from the South elected to Congress. The modernist complex, now a retail, restaurant, event and co-working hub, is known simply as Post. Freedmen’s Town residents will get transportation to special film screenings and priority access to programming at The Reading Room’s space in Post. The first event is on 8 June.

As lead research fellow, Gipson will be at the core of Rebirth in Action: Telling the Story of Freedom, a partnership between CAMH, Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy, the city of Houston and artist Theaster Gates, whose social practice work on the South Side of Chicago offers a guide for this endeavour. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gave $1.25m million to Rebirth in Action and named research fellows as part of the grant; the initiative also received support from the National Endowment for the Arts through its Our Town programme. Gipson is working closely with Charonda Johnson, vice president of Freedmen’s Town Association.

This physical iteration of The Reading Room offers a crucial space for independent learning as Texas legislators pass bills to ban certain books from public school classrooms. Gipson hopes the library will attract like-minded archivists in the Freedmen’s Town community who have their own stories to tell. She will also have access to materials at the nearby African American History Research Center, in the building that housed the Gregory School, the first school for Black students in Houston.

“Freedmen’s Town has a very, very rich history, and has suffered from an unbelievable type of erasure,” Gipson says. “Using creativity and arts education to inspire people or make them aware of their history, it’s the best thing that you could possibly do.”

While moving through the art world for a decade, Gipson felt the absence of something like The Reading Room. She was on the curatorial team at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2019 when it was preparing for Dozie Kanu’s first museum solo show. The exhibition, Function, examined the intersections of art and design as they relate to the artist’s upbringing in Houston, where he was raised by Nigerian immigrant parents. Gipson recognised a conical rim at the base of one of Kanu’s sculptures as the kind put on customised cars known as “slabs” in Houston. A seat in faded purple reminded her of the drink Lean and the region’s rap verses referencing the cocktail of soda and cough syrup. As the only Southerner on the curatorial team, Gipson articulated these important references and touchstones in exhibition materials. She was also instrumental in casting, staging and archiving the first performance to enter the Studio Museum’s permanent collection, a piece by Houston-born performance artist Autumn Knight.

Mich Stevenson, an artist and project manager at CAMH, and the museum’s deputy director, Seba Raquel Suber, see Gipson’s role as essential to the kind of cross-generational repair they hope to facilitate in Freedmen’s Town.

“We are excited to welcome social change makers like Amarie Gipson to this project,” Suber says. “Partnerships of this nature and community collaborations are new territory for CAMH, however crucial for museums to remain culturally relevant, impactful and position artists as a catalyst for social change.”

There are all those cool Smithsonian museums in Washington DC, and it’s hard to beat the Met, MOMA and the natural history collections in Manhattan. But nothing quite tops the Hoosier State when it comes to a museum road trip that’s equally awesome for grownups or kids.

Indiana’s museums include a wide range of topics from dinosaurs and fine art to history, vintage automobiles and sports mascots.

If that’s not enough to entice, consider the fact they’re often hands on, inexpensive and located in interesting locations that lend themselves to further exploration.

The following Indiana museum road trip begins at Indianapolis International Airport in the state capital. But you could just as easily rent a car at Chicago O’Hare and start from there. Total distance is roughly 280 miles (450 km) via Lafayette and South Bend.

But you don’t have to follow this route. It’s easy to create your own meander through Indiana’s museums depending on the interests of yourself or fellow travelers.

Very Close Encounters of the Dinosaur Kind

If you’ve never held a genuine dinosaur bone in your hands, consider a visit to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

Located on the north side of downtown Indy, it’s hard to miss. The building with the three ornery looking Alamosaurus dinosaurs bursting through the front wall and the two giant two Brachiosaurs peeking in through the glass façade.

Sure, it’s for kids. But adults will also get a kick out of a collection that spans everything from ancient Egyptian mummies and China’s terracotta warriors to a full-sized mock up of the International Space Station and a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture comprising 3,200 pieces.

One of the other highlights is the Power of Children, which tells the story of four remarkable 20^th century kids — Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, Ryan White and Malala Yousafzai — through live theatrical performances and replicas of their bedrooms, classrooms, etc.

But the main event for most kids (and adults) is the Dinosphere, where the skeletons of Jurassic giants, Cretaceous creatures and Mesozoic sea monsters are displayed in habitats that reflect what the Earth looked like at those times.

At the Paleo Lab, you can watch paleontologists clean, prepare and study the latest bones from dinosaur digs around the country and reach through a window to touch real dinosaur bones.

3000 N. Meridian St, Indianapolis, IN 46208.

Wild, Wild Western Art

Indiana businessman Harrison Eiteljorg spent much of his life (and fortune) collecting art and artifacts from Africa and North America.

He bestowed his thousand-plus African artworks to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. But he decided to fund the creation of his own museum to display his incredible collection of Native American and classic American Western art.

Situated on the west side of downtown Indy — on the same campus as the Indiana State Museum and the NCAA Hall of Champions — Eiteljorg Museum is one of the city’s must-see attractions.

The Native American collection runs a broad gamut from traditional feather headdresses and beaded leather coats to 21^st-century paintings and sculptures by leading indigenous artists in the U.S. and Canada.

The neighboring American West gallery features works by legendary artists like Charles Russell and Frederic Remington as well as impressive modern works by Daniel Smith and Peter Nisbet.

The current temporary exhibit (which runs through August 6^th) highlights the emotive black-and-white photography of Dorothea Lange and other Depression-era shooters.

And don’t be afraid to bring the kids. The Discovery Area and Education Center in the basement offer hands-on exhibits and creative experiences for children.

500 W Washington St, Indianapolis, IN 46204.

Tippecanoe Battlefield Museum

Outside of a few isolated skirmishes during the War of 1812, the American Midwest hasn’t been the scene of many momentous battles. The one exception is the Battle of Tippecanoe, a brief but violent encounter between Native Americans and the U.S. Army that played out on November 7, 1811.

This small but intriguing museum on the outskirts of modern-day Lafayette lies on the original battlefield.

Through displays and artifacts, the collection recounts the intrusion of white settlers into Native American lands, push back by Tecumseh’s confederation of tribes, and the American military response under future president William Henry Harrison, who was then governor of the recently created Indiana Territory.

Rising above the park area around the museum is an 85-foot obelisk erected in the early 20^th century to mark the 100^th anniversary of a battle that tipped the balance of power in the Midwest firmly in favor of the Euro-American settlers.

200 Battleground Ave, West Lafayette, IN 47906.

Studebaker National Museum

It’s now a long-forgotten marquee, but once upon a time Studebaker was at the cutting edge of motoring style and innovation.

The South Bend collection traces the history of Studebaker from its birth as a horse drawn carriage maker in 1887 and the luxury cars it manufactured after World War One to its innovative military vehicles (like the M29 Weasel) and futuristic streamlined cars (like the Commander, Sceptre and Avanti) of the 1950s and early 60s.

In addition to more than 70 Studebaker vehicles, the museum also boasts the largest collection of carriages used by U.S. presidents (including Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant), an original Conestoga covered wagon, and classic neon signs, as well as fire trucks, funeral hearses and other work vehicles.

201 Chapin St, South Bend, IN 46601.

Mascot Hall of Fame

A splash of living color amid the otherwise gray and rust-colored steelworks of Gary, this lakeside museum brings together mascots from across the sporting spectrum.

Ready made for kids of any age, the hall of fame includes creative hands-on activities like the Marvelous Mascot Maker, the T-Shirt Shooter Stadium and Design a Mascot, as well as play areas, souvenir shop, snack bar, and an official Build-A-Bear Workshop where kids can clad their furry friends in their favorite mascot costume.

The hall of fame was founded by David Raymond, the human inside the Philly Phanatic baseball mascot for 16 years who later became a mascot and character developer for colleges, companies and sports teams.

As of 2022, the HOF had 25 inductees ranging from the San Diego Chicken and Phoenix suns Gorilla to Bucky Badger from the University of Wisconsin and Aubie the auburn Tiger.

1851 Front St, Whiting, IN 46394.

The third annual Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) returns to Trent University in June with five days of theatre, dance, and music performed by independent Indigenous artists.

The first and only Indigenous fringe festival in the world, NIFF was founded by a collective including Joeann Argue, Lee Bolton, Drew Hayden Taylor, and Muriel Miguel. A member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, NIFF is an unjuried and uncensored festival where participants send in applications and are chosen by lottery. Performers receive 100 per cent of the box office proceeds.

The festival takes place from June 21 to 25 indoors and outdoors on the East Bank of Trent University, with all indoor performances at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space. The festival also features two free events (advance registration required). Tickets for individual events are $12 plus fees in advance or $12 cash only at the door depending on availability. To purchase tickets or to register for the free events, visit www.indigenousfringefest.ca.

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NIFF kicks off on Wednesday, June 21st — Indigenous Peoples’ Day — with a free outdoor gathering from 4 to 6 p.m. on the East Bank of Trent University. Everyone is welcome to attend the gathering, which will include traditional food and entertainment and feature the NIFF artists.

Here’s the line-up of festival performers and performance dates.

“The Cave That Hummed A Song” by Trina Moyan

A powerful and intense one-woman play written and performed by Trina Moyan and directed by Jill Carter, “The Cave That Hummed A Song” was inspired by the philosophical musings of Moyan’s mentor Lee Maracle on life, on being a woman, on blood memory, and on women taking their rightful place in society. Weaving present and past and reflecting on legends and current events, the play reflects the traditional form of oral story keeping and story telling from the heart and in the moment in that, each time the story teller shares it, the story changes and is transformed by the listeners.

This 30-minute play is suitable for adults and older children. Performances take place at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space on June 21 at 7 p.m., June 22 at 9:30 p.m., June 23 at 6 p.m., June 24 at 3:30 p.m., and June 25 at 1:30 p.m.

“The Bridge” by Pesch Nepoose

Written and performed by Pesch Nepoose with director/dramaturge Ed Roy and presented by Toronto’s Centre for Indigenous Theatre, “The Bridge” tells the story of Kara, a young Indigenous woman raised by adoptive settler parents who has been drugged and is being held captive. She knows her abductors, and knows if she doesn’t escape she’ll probably end up dead. The play follows Kara’s treacherous journey of self-discovery, as she struggles to find identity and community while being faced with racial and cultural rejection. In this one-woman show, Kara and the various characters she encounters take the audience through the events that led up to her captivity, and eventually looks to the audience to help her resolve its ending.

This play is suitable for adults and youth 14 years of age and older. Performances take place at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space on June 21 at 8:30 p.m., June 22 at 6 p.m., June 23 at 11:30 a.m., June 24 at 7 p.m., and June 25 at 3 p.m.

“Reclaiming in Motion” by Kelli Marshall

Local artist Kelli Marshall premieres her new written word and dance performance. Marshall has been dancing throughout her life and brings together her love of movement and passion for cultural reclamation in this piece.

This 30-minute performance is suitable for all ages. Performances take place at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space on June 22 at 4 p.m., June 23 at 9:30 p.m., June 24 at 5 p.m., and June 25 at 12 p.m. and 7 p.m.

“Abatimbo” by Maison Mere Artists

Maison Mere Artists is a youth initiative based in Burundi, a country in east-central Africa whose borders were not determined by colonial rulers. Maison Mere Artists showcases the unknown talents of Burundian youth to the world through live performance, introduces the Burundian culture to the globe through dances, songs, poems, and more, and shares the message of love, harmony, and caring.

Suitable for all ages, outdoor performances take place on June 22 at 5 p.m., June 23 at 5 p.m., June 24 at 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., and June 25 at 12:30 p.m.

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“Songs and Stories of a Modern Mohawk Continued” by “Tiger” Will Mason

A NIFF favourite, “Tiger” Will Mason returns to perform mostly original songs as well as songs by friends, and to share stories of the songs and his life as related to the songs. Mason has performed on stages for over half of his life, including as an actor and a professional musician. In 1986, an Anishinabe elder gave him the spirit name “Kahntahwi-wim’tchi’get”, which means “Maker of Beautiful Music”. He combines native contemporary sounds, with bluegrass, Americana/Canadiana, country rock, blues rock, folk, and more.

Suitable for all ages, the 60-minute performance takes place outdoors on June 22 at 7 p.m., June 23 at 9 p.m., June 24 at 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and June 25 at 4 p.m.

“An Indigenous Play” by Julia Ross

Written and directed by Julia Ross from Pinaymootang First Nation, “An Indigenous Play” explores the baggage that comes with being an Indigenous artist. Dakota is having her first art show, but is it what everyone expects of her? After navigating troubles at work, troubles at home, and one crazy uncle, the Indigenous art show must go on. The play will be performed by Juicebox Theatre, a Winnipeg-based group of theatre students from the University of Manitoba who previously performed “An Indigenous Play” once before at the university’s Black Hole Theatre.

Performances of this 60-minute play take place at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space on June 22 at 8 p.m., June 23 at 4 p.m., June 24 at 1:30 p.m. and 9 p.m., and June 25 at 5 p.m.

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“Wapikoni: A New Beginning” Program of Indigenous Short Films

On Friday, June 23rd from 7 to 9 p.m. at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space, 13 short films by Indigenous filmmakers will be screened followed by an artist discussion.

The short film program is being presented by Wapikoni Mobile, a non-profit organization based in Montreal that hosts educational workshops and film screenings to raise awareness and educate the wider public about First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people cultures, issues, and rights.

Taking place at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space, this all-ages event is free but advance registration is required.

“Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Doctor” with Dr. Drew Hayden Taylor

On Sunday, June 25th at 2 p.m., NIFF artistic director Joeann Argue will have a discussion with Drew Hayden Taylor from Curve Lake First Nation, a playwright, author, journalist, and newly minted honorary Doctor of Letters. Taylor will discuss his life in the arts so far and his hopes for the future of Indigenous performance, and will read from a selection of his favourite pieces from his long and distinguished career.

Taking place at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space, this all-ages event is free but advance registration is required.

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“Leathers and Feathers” by The Johnnys

NIFF wraps up at 9 p.m. on Sunday, June 25th with a one-night-only performance at Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space by Ontario rock band The Johnnys. Founded by spouses Veronica Johnny and Dave Johnny, the band is known for delivering rowdy, high-energy, humour-filled shows and have shared stages with Geordie Johnson, Bif Naked, Stevie Salas, Bruce Cockburn, Keith Secola, and Crystal Shawanda. Veronica’s Cree heritage is reflected in the band’s lyric content, with Indigenous influences on topics such as the environment, social justice, and political change.

The Johnnys’ first three independently released albums were all nominated for national music awards and their fourth album Leathers and Feathers garnered international award nominations. Their songs “Time to Shine”, “Have a Good Time All the Time”, and Salas/Gutierrez remixes “Leathers and Feathers” and “Butterfly” all reached top 10 on the Indigenous music countdown.

For more information about the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival, visit www.indigenousfringefest.ca.

Certain names are synonymous with the circus: P.T. Barnum, James Anthony Bailey, the Ringling Brothers, Irvin Feld.

But Arthur “Art” Concello? His wife, Antoinette Concello?

Most people have likely never heard of them, yet these two people played a crucial role in bringing the circus as we still know it today to the masses.

Their fascinating story of tenacity, ambition and perseverance is told in the recently published book

“In the Shadow of the Big Top: The Life of Ringling’s Unlikely Circus Savior”

by Mayville native and circus historian Maureen Brunsdale. She’s the head of special collections at Milner Library at Illinois State University who oversees the extensive Circus & Allied Arts Collection. It contains more than 9,000 books — the oldest of which is about training horses for an audience that was published in the 1500s.

Interestingly,

a sizeable portion of the collection

came from another Mayville native: Sverre Braathen. Back in 2008, Brunsdale had just taken the job overseeing special collections and was perusing items when by “happy accident” she stumbled on a older black scrapbook and began thumbing through it.

“I sat down and realized I was looking at a photo taken in Mayville, North Dakota, and Sverre’s wife Faye was standing in front of the Brunsdale gravemarker in the Mayville cemetery,” Brunsdale said. She soon learned the couple had donated their enormous collection of circus photographs, slides and more to Illinois State in the 1970s, and many of the photos show Art and Antoinette Concello as the famed trapeze aerialists they became in the 20th century.

Born in 1911, Art Concello moved with his family to Bloomington, Illinois, as a baby. His high-energy personality and lack of interest in school led him to one of the most daring opportunities of the time: the flying trapeze.

Circuses have been entertaining audiences since 1793, and the main acts of the 1800s featured horses and talking clowns, Brunsdale writes. The first trapeze routine was featured in Paris in 1859, and circuses quickly began including them.

By the time Concello noticed the well-paid celebrity stars of the circus, Bloomington was known as the Trapeze Capital of the World thanks to two training schools. An 11-year-old Concello soon found himself training with

“The Flying Wards” trapeze act founder Eddie Ward

.

That’s how he met Antoinette Comeau, a petite dark-haired beauty who’d been abandoned by her parents but followed her older sister into circus life. Art and Antoinette became a dynamic duo both in the air and in love, marrying in May 1929 and forming their own act as the Aerial Concellos by the 1930 season.

As their fame rose, they became The Flying Concellos and Art sought more lucrative opportunities. He began contracting with the major circus companies to have his aerial acts appear and by 1942, Art was managing “The Greatest Show on Earth” for the Ringling Bros. Circus.

The next decades of Art and Antoinette Concello’s lives and careers were a tumultuous journey as Art changed management gigs, bought a circus himself, both worked as crucial stunt trainers on the set of

Cecil B. Demille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”,

welcomed their only child in 1945,

Art had an affair and his mistress ended up with a bullet in her abdomen before the couple divorced in 1956.

That same year, the Ringling circus closed abruptly after the main tent blew down in one of many weather-related incidents, and president John Ringling North declared that “the tented circus as it now exists is in my opinion a thing of the past”, Brunsdale writes. Art Concello, back in the management chair, found the challenge invigorating and saw an opportunity to move the circus indoors, which meant reduced transportation costs, consistent schedules, and less dependence on favorable weather.

“Art saved the circus,” Brunsdale said. “After the Hartford fire in 1944 and another in 1956 and Ringling closing in 1956, everyone thought the circus was dead. But Art said he could run it in buildings. He wasn’t the only person putting a circus in a building, but he put the biggest show into one.”

Meanwhile, Mayville native Sverre Braathen’s love of the circus blossomed as a young boy, possibly thanks to a

Ringling show in Fargo in July 1902.

His passion for the circus was sidelined as he went off to World War I. He returned to North Dakota where he fell in love with Faye and enrolled in law school at the University of North Dakota. The couple ended up in Madison, Wisconsin, and Braathen began practicing law, but his love of the circus only grew.

He combined

his profession with his hobby by aiding performers, managers and musicians with legal or immigration matters,

and he developed an extensive network of contacts within the circus industry. He became friends with longtime bandleader Merle Evans, who also happened to be close friends with the Concellos.

“Sverre and Faye met Art and Antoinette Concello because they were the superstars of the circus,” Brunsdale said. “Before there were movie stars and rock stars, there were circus stars…Sverre wrote many letters to the Concellos, but most often it was Antoinette writing back to him.”

And even though Sverre Braathen was a prolific photographer, he was never able to pin down the Concellos for a group photograph. “Art didn’t love having his photo taken,” Brunsdale said, noting that he preferred to stay in the background, making deals and managing shows.

Plus, the Braathens’ collection offered a good starting point for telling the story. “There were letters and contracts for lots of performers which gave me a sense of how important circuses were in America at the time the Concellos were trouping,” she said.

Brunsdale’s book took several years to research and write, and she’s been pleased by the reaction circus historians and descendants of circus performers have had to the tale.

“I just got an email the other day from a child of a trapeze performer who worked for Art, and they said they could feel their father’s presence through Art’s story,” Brunsdale said. “It was very humbling.”

She’s also delighted that various circus societies and groups have been astounded by the research she uncovered and are happy Art and Antoinette’s story is being brought to life.

“Back when TV wasn’t a thing, people like Art and Antoinette were doing incredible things,” she said, noting that a newspaper reporter once asked Antoinette why she would want to do such dangerous tricks. “She said, “I figured if a man could do them, why couldn’t I?'”

Both Art and Antoinette came from humble beginnings but persevered through hardships, physical injuries, professional setbacks, personal turmoil and more to remain relevant in the industry they loved so much. Antoinette worked for years as the aerial director for Ringling, often filling in when other flyers were injured when she was in her 50s; she didn’t resign her position until 1983 at the age of 70. She died of lung cancer in 1984.

Art never really left the circus industry and went into business several times with various circus colleagues. He finally married his longtime girlfriend after Antoinette died and lived another 17 years, dying of pneumonia in 2001.

“For someone who entered life as a nobody, he sure turned into a somebody. He first used his muscles and then his brains, both of which he had in abundance, to make the transformation,” Brunsdale writes.

“In the Shadow of the Big Top” is available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Brunsdale also co-authored the book

“The Bloomington-Normal Circus Legacy,”

which published in 2013.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (WTVD) — And that’s a wrap! In its 21st year in existence, the Soul Beach Music Festival has officially completed another lap in entertaining music and comedy lovers from around the world.

Soul Beach CEO Mark Adkins said the island of Aruba saw some 8,000 attendees to this year’s festival.

Beginning on May 24, guests were treated to daily and nightly parties on Aruba’s famed Palm Beach to the sounds of bass-pumping, body-shaking, and feet-stomping music from artists such as DJ Outkast, DJ Trauma, DJ Envy, DJ E-Clazz, and DJ Diablo, to name a few.

“This is my eighth Soul Beach Festival,” said one woman from New Jersey. “We always stay at the Holiday Inn Resort and have a great time.”

Thursday evening’s popular all-white party brought out hundreds of people to neighboring venues Baru and South Beach. DJ Outkast, DJ Envy, and DJ E-Clazz spun the night away to hip-hop classics like Crime Mob’s “Knuck If You Buck”, the ever-so-famous “Swag Surf”, and many other hit songs.

WATCH: ‘I love it’: Fans enjoy live music, food on final day of Dreamville Festival in Raleigh

“If you’re with your best friend, point them out,” shouted New York’s DJ Envy over the sound system.

Come Friday night, many of the festival attendees were prime ready for the heavily-attended comedy concert featuring actor/comedian Tiffany Haddish, comedian and actor Deon Cole from Black-ish on ABC – hosted by actor and comedian Chase Anthony.

The evening concluded with an after-party at the adjacent convention center of the Wind Creek Aruba Casino.

“I was in my bag tonight,” said DJ Trauma in an Instagram post.

Soul Beach is perhaps best known for the musical artists it brings each and every year. 2023 was no different with Saturday’s concert at Harbour Arena featuring Watra, North Carolina native Anthony Hamilton, and hip-hop legends The Roots. The nearly hour-long set by Anthony Hamilton and hour-plus-long entertainment by The Roots perfectly complemented the backdrop of Caribbean Sea waves and cool breeze.

“I’m just a country boy from Wadesboro,” said Hamilton as he effortlessly weaved between songs before gracing the audience with his hit song “Comin’ From Where I’m From”.

A husband and wife couple from Durham, who asked not to be identified, flew down for the festival and said they were enjoying the concert.

“My husband’s (standing) in the back,” she said. “I’m up here in the front because I’m vertically challenged,” she laughed.

Midday Sunday, hundreds of folks drove south to the island’s pristine and picture-perfect Baby Beach for a Carnival-style day party. The beach day party served as a precursor to the highly-anticipated evening performances by R&B artists Lucky Daye and Philadelphia native Jill Scott.

Daye’s performance, however, was cut short after only a few songs due to what was explained as technical difficulties.

Concert host, comedian and actor Chris Spencer, filled the remaining time before Scott’s performance.

One man from Wake Forest won a return trip to Aruba in a drawing from the Aruba Tourism Authority. “He looks exactly how I thought he would look,” joked Spencer as the man went on stage to claim his prize and pose for photo opportunities.

The musical evening capped off with a stellar and memorable performance by Scott, who serenaded the crowd with her top hits such as “Golden”, “The Way”, “A Long Walk”, “Hate On Me”, “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat)”, and many others. And to complement her sweetness, Scott returned to the stage for two encore songs.

“This could all not be done without the help of our partners,” said Adkins in a Sunday evening press conference. “We look forward to many more years to come.”

Richmond Performing Arts Alliance (RPAA) has announced the 2023-24 Legends on Grace– Nightcaps & Stories season. The five-part series features conversations and traditional cabaret style performances designed to showcase Virginia talent.

According to a press release: The upcoming season will feature a number of artists local to the Richmond area including Ali Thibodeau, Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers, Crystal Monee Hall, and DJ Harrison. “You can expect an array of performance styles and experiences ranging from a theatrical concert that explores the relationship between Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen to an inside look into the world of Broadway and music production.

Season subscriptions are on sale now with single tickets following on July 10. All performances are hosted out of Dominion Energy Center in the downtown arts district and each performance runs 2 hours with a 15-minute intermission. To purchase tickets, visit rpaaliance.com.

Here is the lineup with descriptions provided by the organizers:

Sept. 23, 2023: Legends on Grace: Bobby Smith at 8 p.m. at Rhythm Hall

“Virginia native, actor, teacher, choreographer, and director, Bobby Smith
has graced the stages of Broadway and national theaters across the
country – receiving numerous nominations and winning three Helen Hayes
Awards. He has also directed and choreographed and is featured in the
new film ‘Burst the Silence,’ based on a world premiere musical by Robbie
Schaefer that will be released later this year. The evening will be hosted by
Richmond native, music director, and pianist, R.L. Rowsey.”

Dec. 2, 2023: Legends on Grace: Both Sides Now at 8 p.m. and December 3, 2023 at 2 p.m at the Libby S. Gottwald Playhouse

“Fresh off a two-week sold-out run at Signature Theatre, Both Sides Now is a theatrical concert that explores the music and lives of long-time friends
and one-time lovers, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Starring Robbie
Schaefer and Danielle Wertz, the evening navigates decades alongside
songs such as ‘A Case of You,’ ‘Hallelujah,’ ‘Big Yellow Taxi,’ ‘Suzanne,’ and
many more, offering us a story about the messiness of being human, the struggle to stay connected, and the importance of truly seeing one another.”

Feb. 24, 2024: Legends on Grace: DJ Harrison at 8 p.m. at Rhythm Hall

Grammy-nominated producer, singer, and songwriter, Devonne Harris –
better known as DJ Harrison – grew up with music inspired by the diverse
local music scene in the greater Richmond area. Harris founded Jellowstone Studio and co-founded the record label of the same name with No BS! Brass Band leader Reggie Pace. The studio has birthed countless projects by local artists in Virginia — including Harris and his bandmates in Butcher Brown. The evening will be hosted by Style Weekly music journalist Peter McElhinney.”

April 13, 2024: Legends on Grace: Crystal Monee Hall at 8 p.m. at Rhythm Hall

“Richmond native, singer, songwriter, actor, and professor, Crystal Monee
Hall’s varied career includes roles on Broadway, tours with award-winning
artists, and three albums. Her original songs have been sung by numerous
artists, including Kristin Chenoweth, and she has been a featured singer
and performed alongside award-winning artists, Thomas Rhett, Ben Platt,
Cynthia Erivo, Mariah Carey, and Kanye West. The evening will be hosted
by TEDx speaker and author Sheila E. Battle.”

May 25, 2024: Legends on Grace: River City Spotlight at 8 p.m. at Rhythm Hall

“Some of RVA’s hottest artists come together to close out the season to
deliver a celebration of local talent. Ali Thibodeau, better known as Deau
Eyes, creates music from a melting pot of influences. She was recently
recognized on NPR as Slingshot’s 2023 Artist to Watch and her
sophomore album Legacies won the 2023 Newlin Music Prize. Ali will be
joined by Cassidy Snider & The Wranglers whose band blends blues and folk in a way that takes you from the New Orleans Bayou to the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

DJ Drama‘s list of Gangsta Grillz collaborators is extensive and star-studded, and now he has his eyes set on a few superstars in the making.

After working on Tyler, The Creator’s Grammy-winning Call Me If You Get Lostin 2021, Drama has been on a tangent – putting out Gangsta Grillz tapes with Jeezy, Snoop Dogg, Symba, French Montana, NBA YoungBoy, Jim Jones and more. After releasing his own studio album in March, I’m Really Like That, the Philly native is now eying new talent.

“I’ve had the conversation with Stove God [Cooks],” Drama told XXL about his future collaborators. “I would love to do a project with him. I think a GloRillaGangsta Grillz would be fire. Maybe even like Ice Spice or maybe Lady London. So many dope females out there.”

He continued: “Obviously, a lot of people have always wanted the EST GeeGangsta Grillz. Don’t get me started, so many people. I mean, would love to do a Brent FaiyazGangsta Grillz. It is endless. I think that’s one thing that’s dope and potent about Gangsta Grillz. It’s a platform and cross-generational.”

I’m Really Like That clocks in at 14 songs and is stacked with appearances from Lil Wayne, Tyler, The Creator, Lil Baby, Jeezy, Lil Uzi Vert, Offset, T.I., Rick Ross, Jack Harlow, Gucci Mane, Westside Gunn and the late Nipsey Hussle, among others.

It serves as DJ Drama’s first studio album since 2016’s Quality Street Music 2, which was an equally star-studded affair.

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During a recent sit-down with The Breakfast Club, Drama said his eagerness to get back into the studio came after working on Call Me If You Get Lost.

“I was in a new gear ever since the Tyler Call Me If You Get Lost sparked. I felt reinvigorated and I ran with it and put this album together,” he said. “I think he kinda in a sense revitalized Gangsta Grillz, just as far as what was going on with mixtapes.

“Obviously, it was a Grammy Award-winning project, so yeah, he brought some life back to it — or we brought some life back to it.”

He also recently revealed that a De La Soul Gangsta Grillz tape is on the way. “De La Soul’s coming to streaming. I can’t be more excited,” he said. “And we got a Gangsta Grillz coming! Little sidebar.”

Princeton University awarded honorary degrees to the following recipients during the 2023 Commencement ceremony on Tuesday, May 30. 

Lynn A. Conway                         

Doctor of Science

Lynn A. Conway is an innovator of microelectronics chip design whose work has made foundational contributions to computer architecture and engineering. Thousands of computer chip designers have learned their craft from her seminal book, Introduction to VLSI Systems, co-authored with Carver Mead of Caltech. Now professor emerita of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, she began her career at IBM Research in 1964, moving on to work at Memorex Corporation and at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). She also served as assistant director for strategic computing at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She was a visiting associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT from 1978­–79 and joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1985, also serving as associate dean of the College of Engineering. Conway is a prominent transgender activist and advocate for LGBTQIA rights, particularly in the fields of technology, computer science, and engineering. A fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), she has received the Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society, the IBM Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Center for Women in Technology Pioneer in Tech Award, among other honors. She holds honorary doctorates from Trinity College, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Victoria, and University of Michigan. She also is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Columbia University (B.S., 1962; M.S.E.E., 1963) 

On the verge of a breakthrough while working at IBM in 1968, the talented young engineer was fired after confiding to supervisors that she was transgender. She successfully rebuilt her career as a computer scientist and helped revolutionize microchip design in the 1980s, leading to high-tech advancements that helped transform society and continue to impact our lives today. After groundbreaking work in industry and government, she taught the next generation of computer scientists as a professor and associate dean of engineering at the University of Michigan. Decades passed before she felt comfortable sharing the discrimination she’d experienced early in her career, becoming a vocal advocate for transgender rights and an inspiration to LGBTQIA scientists worldwide. And in 2020—52 years after her firing—she received a formal apology from IBM, along with the company’s lifetime achievement award for her “pioneering work” in computers.

Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones 

Doctor of Humane Letters

Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones, the Emory L. Ford Professor of Spanish, Emeritus, and professor of Spanish and Portuguese, emeritus, joined the Princeton faculty in 1983. From 1970 to 1982, he taught at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. At Princeton, he directed the Program in Latin American Studies from 1988 to 1994, helping build the program with an interdisciplinary team of faculty members and a thriving community of undergraduates and graduate students. Díaz-Quiñones is an expert in the fields of Latin American cultural and intellectual history and Caribbean poetry. He teaches Latin American literature, with emphasis on the impact of imperial, anticolonial, and diasporic traditions. He is a 2010 recipient of Princeton’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and received the Pace Center for Civic Engagement’s Faculty Service Award in 2019. Among his many scholarly contributions are his essays and books on the role of imagination in the creation of a collective memory in work by José Martí, Luis Palés Matos, Nilita Vientós, Fernando Ortiz, Pedro Henríquez Ureña, and Lorenzo Homar, among others, and his editions of works by Puerto Rican writers such as Luis Rafael Sánchez, Tomás Blanco, and José Luis González. Díaz-Quiñones received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Hispanic studies from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. He completed his graduate philological training at the Universidad Central de Madrid, Spain, with a doctoral dissertation on the uses of the Spanish language in 16th-century colonial archival documents. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, the University of Washington, the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the Universidad de Cartagena, Colombia, Swarthmore College, and Hostos Community College of the City University of New York.  

Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras (B.A., 1961; M.A., 1963) 

Universidad Central de Madrid (Ph.D., 1968)

One the most prominent public intellectuals of his time in Caribbean studies, he is also a beloved teacher who has inspired generations of undergraduate and graduate students at Princeton and beyond. A prolific writer and scholar, his essays are classics in the Latin American and Latino/Latina modern literary canon, and his scholarship has played a seminal role in creating literary and social justice networks across the Americas. Two of his regular offerings at Princeton, “Introduction to Spanish American Literature” and “Introduction to Latin American Poetry,” became legendary courses on campus. Under his direction for six years, Princeton’s Program in Latin American Studies became a world-class area studies program and a dynamic community of diverse scholars, writers, artists, and policy experts, along with undergraduate and graduate students. 

Rhiannon Giddens

Doctor of Music

Rhiannon Giddens is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer whose music aims to lift up people who have been previously overlooked in American musical history, and to work toward a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins. She is a Grammy Award winner, a 2023 Pulitzer Prize recipient, and a MacArthur Fellow. Giddens draws inspiration from many musical traditions—from blues, jazz, gospel, folk, and classical—and reaches into African American, Celtic, Appalachian, and Italian musical influences, and beyond. Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning group Carolina Chocolate Drops and formed Our Native Daughters with three other Black female banjo players to tell musical stories of historic Black womanhood and survival. She won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album for They’re Calling Me Home, which she made with her partner, multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. Named artistic director of Silkroad Ensemble in 2020, Giddens now leads the ensemble in its mission to create music that engages difference, sparking cultural collaboration and high-quality arts education. She has performed at national and international festivals and venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the White House, the Spoleto Festival, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Chicago Blues Festival, the Aarhus Festival in Denmark, and the National Folk Festival, among others. Giddens is a television and podcast host, including her new PBS program, My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, and she starred in the television series Nashville. 

Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M., 2000)

Named by NPR as one of the 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century, she has dedicated her career to raising up voices that have been overlooked or erased. Discovering the history of African American string bands as a young musician changed the trajectory of her career—as she devoted herself to introducing new audiences to the Black banjoists and fiddlers whose influences have been left out of the historical narratives surrounding folk and country music. As a singer and multi-instrumentalist, her achievements are as diverse as the musical styles she performs. A two-time Grammy Award winner, she is also a Pulitzer Prize recipient and a MacArthur “Genius.” Her roles include artistic director, composer of opera, ballet, and film, children’s book author, and television host and actress. Few contemporary artists have done more to connect overlooked musical traditions of America’s past with music being performed today.

Suzan Shown Harjo

Doctor of Humane Letters

Suzan Shown Harjo’s life’s work has been devoted to promotion and protection of Native Peoples’ ancestors, children, arts, cultures, languages, traditions, lands, and waters. Harjo is Cheyenne/Tsistsistas and Hotvlkvlke Mvskokvlke of Nuyakv, and a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma. Since 1984, she has been president of The Morning Star Institute, a national nonprofit dedicated to securing Native rights through research, advocacy, and stereotype-busting. A 2014 recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, she is a 2022 inductee into the National Native American Hall of Fame; a past executive director of the National Congress of American Indians; a former legislative liaison for the Native American Rights Fund; and a political appointee for legislation in the administration of President Jimmy Carter. She led campaigns for laws on religious freedom, repatriation, and establishment of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), for which she was a founding trustee. Her curation work includes the first exhibition of works by contemporary Native artists shown in the House and Senate Rotundas of the U.S. Capitol (1992), and the first exhibition to tell the story of U.S. treaties and treatymaking with Native Nations (NMAI, 2014-2027). The first Native woman Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth University, she was the first woman awarded the Institute of American Indian Arts’ Honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 2011. Harjo is also the first Native woman elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020) and the American Philosophical Society (2022). As a journalist and producer in the late 1960s and early 1970s at WBAI-FM in New York, she was the first female drama and literature director at the free-speech station, and she and her husband, Frank Ray Harjo, produced the first national Native news radio show. Her writings are widely published and she is the past news director of the American Indian Press Association; board member of the Native American Journalists Association and UNITY: Journalists of Color; and founding co-chair of The Howard Simons Fund for Indian Journalists.

Institute of American Indian Arts (Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, 2011)

A tireless advocate at the center of almost every Native American legislative, legal, and cultural issue over the past half-century, her work has led to the protection of rights, cultures, and sacred places, and the return of more than one million acres of Indigenous lands. She is an activist, poet, journalist, curator, playwright, and more—and the force behind the decades-long movements to Indigenize Native place names and to remove sports team names and mascots that stereotype or disparage Native Peoples, from high schools to the National Football League. In awarding her the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Barack Obama said it best: “Because of Suzan, more young Native Americans are growing up with pride in their heritage, and with faith in their future. And she has taught all of us that Native values make America stronger.”

Katalin Karikó        

Doctor of Science

Katalin Karikó worked tirelessly with her University of Pennsylvania colleague Dr. Drew Weissman on pioneering research into messenger RNA (mRNA) that provided the foundation for the COVID-19 vaccines developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and by Moderna. She was senior vice president at BioNTech from 2013 to 2022, serving as head of its RNA protein replacement therapies, and she has been an adjunct professor of neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine since 1989. Karikó was born in Hungary and earned her bachelor’s degree in biology and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Szeged. She began her scientific career at University of Szeged’s Biological Research Center before immigrating to the United States for postdoctoral fellowships at Temple University in Philadelphia, and at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Karikó has been honored with Columbia University’s Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Princess of Asturias Award, and the Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Biotechnology, among other awards. She was also named one of Time magazine’s most influential people of 2021 and named to the 2022 National Inventors Hall of Fame.

University of Szeged (B.S., 1978; Ph.D., 1982)

It was while studying biology in the late 1970s at the University of Szeged in Hungary that she became interested in the molecule that would define her career and help lead to the creation of new vaccines aimed at thwarting a global pandemic. However, it would be decades before she and her University of Pennsylvania research partner, Dr. Drew Weissman, were able to show the infinite potential of that molecule—called messenger RNA. When her lab in Hungary closed, the young scientist immigrated to the United States with only $1,200 hidden inside her daughter’s teddy bear for safekeeping, determined to continue her research on mRNA. After years of professional and personal setbacks, and facing many doubters within the scientific community, she and Weissman were able to create the modified version of mRNA that provided the foundation for a landmark in vaccine development. Her dedication, determination, creativity, and resilience inspire all of us to persevere with our most audacious ideas. 

Kaomi Lee:

Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan is the highest-ranking Native American elected to executive office. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna. She was the first Native American sworn in as a Cabinet secretary. Both made their indigenous identities visible.

One of the products that we carry is NTVS, Natives, and they have a whole different clothing line. They have a lot of different T-shirts.

It wasn’t always like that. Boarding schools forced generations of Native Americans to be ashamed of who they were. Few could make a living off their art, and that’s why it matters now.

Travis Zimmerman, Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post: So, another company is Round Lake Traditions. And that’s by Herb Fineday. He’s also a Fond du Lac, and he does these denim shirts.