Artists and Musicians: Videos

Museum Concludes Action-Packed Black History Month

The board and resident artists of Zion Union Heritage Museum presented a comprehensive series of films, panel discussions, and presentations at the museum and other local venues from February 1-28 in commemoration of Black History Month. Collectively, the events highlighted the struggles and accomplishments of African Americans, Cape Verdeans, and other ethnic and demographic groups in this region and the country as a whole.

Zion Museum—located in Hyannis and a partner with cultural and community organizations Cape-wide—is at the hub of a network of artists, musicians, local historians, and writers. The museum represents Pamela Chatterton-Purdy, whose art and historical exhibition Icons of the Civil Rights Movement, Past and Present portrays heroes in the historic struggle that culminated in the 1950s and ‘60s and continues to this day. Another noteworthy resident artist is long-time Barnstable High School Art Director Carl Lopes, who creates stunning paintings that are thoroughly contemporary in feel, while reflecting centuries of influential African tradition and design. Resident artist Robin Joyce Miller—an award-winning New York educator and artist, now retired—focuses on African American Heritage themes in her mixed media collage quilts and in her poetry. In the various planned events, the artists discussed their work and the history and traditions that inspire it. One work by each artist was hung in the Cape Cod Museum of Art for the duration of Black History Month.

The month’s highlights also included the screening of Journeys in the Light, Untold Stories of Cape Cod, the museum’s new documentary celebrating the diverse population that has resided here since the arrival of the Mayflower and long before. The 2015 film, based in part on the historical notes of Dolores DaLuz and made possible through the generosity of the Lyndon Paul Larusso Foundation, was released in an updated version. In addition to Zion Museum’s resident artists, the film also features the work of other artists associated with the museum, including Michael Alfano, Vasco Pires, Elizabeth Mumford, Joe Diggs, and Sean Cassidy. A collaborative endeavor involving people and organizations across the Cape, the documentary also draws on the music of outstanding regional musicians including Walter Beasley, Ensemble Passacaglia, Steffani Bennett, and Jerry Portnoy. The film is produced by ArtistsAndMusicians.org and John L. Reed, Executive Director of Zion Museum.

Events: February 1-28, 2018, in honor of BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Thursday, February 1. 6 pm. Presentation by Zion Museum resident artist Robin Joyce Miller titled The Influence of Jazz on Art. Cape Cod Museum of Art. $10 for CCMoA and ZUHM members. $12 for non-members.

Saturday, February 3. 2-4 pm. Open house. 2:30 pm screening of the documentary Journeys in the Light, Untold Stories of Cape Cod. 400 years of the little-known history of People of Color in this region, featuring art, artifacts, and archival material from the museum. Zion Union Heritage Museum. Refreshments. Donations accepted.

Monday, February 5, 1:30-2:30 pm. Screening of the documentary Journeys in the Light, Untold Stories of Cape Cod. Barnstable Senior Center (Free admission)

Friday, February 9, 1:30-2:30 pm. Presentation by Zion Museum resident artist Carl Lopes. The artist will show his work and discuss the “how” and the “why” of his unique and intriguing paintings. Barnstable Senior Center (Free admission). Photo of the artist in his studio, credit: Merrily Cassidy of The Cape Cod Times.

Thursday, February 15. 6 pm. Screening of the documentary Journeys in the Light, Untold Stories of Cape Cod, followed by a discussion with the artists and filmmaker. Cape Cod Museum of Art. $10 for CCMoA and ZUHM members. $12 for non-members.

Saturday, February 17, 11 am. “Rhythms of a Faithful Journey," a multimedia presentation by Zion Union Heritage Museum resident artist Robin Joyce Miller and her husband, James Walter Miller, memorializing key moments in African American History through poetry and art. Annual Meeting of the Falmouth Museums on the Green. Artwork will be on exhibit through February 25.

Saturday, February 17, 2-4 pm. Tales of Cape Cod. An oral history project of the Kennedy family on Cape Cod. Zion Union Heritage Museum. Donations accepted.

Monday, February 26, 1:30-2:30 pm. Screening of the documentary Icons of the Civil Rights Movement, Past and Present, followed by a discussion with Zion Museum resident artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy and her husband Rev. David A. Purdy, who researched and wrote the film’s historical material. Barnstable Senior Center (Free admission)

Wednesday, February 28, 1:30-2:30 pm. Coding Underground Railroad Quilts by Nancy Brunswick. Barnstable Senior Center (Free admission)

Just Released: JOURNEYS IN THE LIGHT: UNTOLD STORIES OF CAPE COD

DVD COVER IMAGE BY CARL LOPES

Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis, MA, and ArtistsAndMusicians.org have released a new documentary recounting the little-known story of people of color in the historic region of Cape Cod. The film will be shown at the Jacob Sears Library in East Dennis, MA, on Sunday, March 13, at 4 pm.

VIEW TRAILER

The film’s title takes inspiration from a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.” Journeys in the Light shows how present-day Cape Codders and their ancestors struggled, generation after generation, to bring to reality the promise of America that was set down on a ship in Cape Cod Bay in 1620: “just and equal laws for the general good.”

On October 7, producer Janet Murphy Robertson was interviewed by Mindy Todd of NPR/WCAI about the film: INTERVIEW

Organized into fifteen short chapters, the film moves from early segments like “The Promise of America,” “Pilgrims and People of the First Light,” and “Darkness Falls” through “The Road to Freedom” and “Journeys to the North” and on to “Fighting for Civil Rights” and “Moving Cape Cod Communities Forward.” While addressing frankly such difficult topics as slavery here on Cape Cod during the Colonial Period, the documentary highlights the courageous individuals who led the fight for freedom, drove for education and economic progress, transformed oppression into brilliant forms of creative expression, served the country in every war, and came to excel in sports, entrepreneurship, teaching, the arts, community service, and various other professions here on the Cape and around the country.

Several distinct groups are represented within Cape Cod’s minority population, including African Americans, Wampanoags, and people from Brazil and the Caribbean, as well as a unique immigrant group present in this region

"The Journey" by Michael Alfano stands in front of the museum.

since the early 1800s, Cape Verdeans. The filmmakers use the diverse ancestry of Cape Cod’s people of Color as a window into little-known aspects of American history. They draw upon the Zion Union Heritage Museum’s own collection, and its family of artists, to tell the fascinating story—a feat made easier because the museum has the world’s largest collection of art, artifacts, photographs, and historical documents concerning People of Color in this region.

The series Icons of the Civil Rights Movement by resident artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy includes more than 30 portraits, each accompanied by historical notes researched and written by the artist’s husband David Purdy. In her series of paper collage quilts, resident artist Robin Joyce Miller chronicles the African-American experience from the capture into slavery and “Middle Passage” across the Atlantic to the inauguration of the first black President. A third resident artist, Carl Lopes, long-time Barnstable High School Art Director, creates paintings inspired by African motifs such as masks and shields. In the context of the documentary, his works—with their bold, regal quality—represent a high point in the centuries-long journey of People of Color, where Afro-centric cultural elements are celebrated as important in themselves and a vital aspect of our shared American story. These three artists are joined by others—including Michael Alfano, Elizabeth Mumford, Vasco Pires, Joe Souza, and David Lewis—in telling various pieces of the fascinating story.

Also spotlighted in Journeys in the Light are local heroes, including Eugenia Fortes, an immigrant from the richly diverse Cape Verde Islands. Fortes stood her ground on a beach in Hyannis Port in 1945, a full decade before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, AL. Another of the Civil Rights-era highlights is the story of the “Reverse Freedom Riders”—African Americans who were tricked into taking a bus from Arkansas to Hyannis where, they were told, housing and jobs awaited them. The hoax was devised by enemies of integration who sought to embarrass President John F. Kennedy,

"I Have a Dream," from the series Icons of the Civil Rights Movement by Pamela Chatterton-Purdy

whose “Summer White House” was in nearby Hyannis Port. Harold Tobey, founding member of the Zion Union Heritage Museum and former President of the Barnstable Town Council, appears in the documentary and discusses his family’s deep roots on Cape Cod, which date to 1865.Several of these stories, and others, were first set down by writer and local historian Dolores DaLuz in her “Notes toward a History of Black People in Barnstable,” published in 1989 for the town’s 350th anniversary.

The legislative victories of the Civil Rights Movement opened up new opportunities for People of Color just as Cape Cod was poised to move forward to become a world-class resort destination and the year-round home of more than 200 thousand people. Many local People of Color made substantial contributions to their communities, including Joseph DaLuz, Barnstable’s Building Commissioner who was universally respected for his skill and fairness during over two decades with the department.

The soundtrack for Journeys in the Light includes recordings from several top regional musicians, including saxophonist Walter Beasley, professor of music at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Portions of early American history are narrated against a backdrop of Renaissance music performed by Ensemble Passacaglia of Falmouth. The group's rendition of early Portuguese music also helps to set the mood for the film’s segments concerning immigrants from Cape Verde, who have a mixture of African and European ancestry, primarily Portuguese. Legendary blues harpist Jerry Portnoy of East Dennis sets the mood with “Stormy Weather” at various junctures in the history, including the Jim Crow South and the Great Migration. Other musicians featured include vocalist/pianist Steffani Bennett of New York and five-time Grammy Nominee Tierney Sutton.

Journeys in the Light: Untold Stories of Cape Cod has been in the making for two-and-a-half years and is produced by ArtistsAndMusicians.org in collaboration with John L. Reed, Executive Director of the Zion Union Heritage Museum. Script and videography is by Janet Murphy Robertson.

Marilyn Rowland of East Falmouth, MA, and others provided editorial assistance. In an earlier project, Rowland, a long-time member of FCTV in Falmouth, collaborated with artist Robin Joyce Miller and Janet Murphy Robertson on a program titled “Restoring My African Soul,” for which Rowland won a national-level Hometown Media Award in August 2015 as independent producer in the category of “Cultural Perspectives.”

Flash Mob Performs Ode to Joy in Spain

Artist Rosa Pimenta sent this great YouTube clip from Spain, featuring a flash mob performance of the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth. Brought back memories of the incredibly moving performance of the masterpiece by the Simon Sinfonietta, with the Chatham Chorale and Falmouth Chorale, in May 2011.