Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Month and Florida Jewish History Month

 

 

 

 

 

For DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR MONTH and FLORIDA JEWISH HISTORY MONTH, 2022, we have curated a group of video interviews and stories from the ArtSpeak archives with prominent people in the arts,  who are connected to the Miami and South Florida areas.

Beginning March, 2020, 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.

 

 

 

 

The Historic Hampton House: Most Important Nexus in African American History

 

In the 1950s and ’60s, when Miami Beach was still segregated and African-Americans were not allowed to sleep there, the HAMPTON HOUSE MOTEL was an oasis for African-American leaders, activists, performers, and professional athletes, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali.

 

 

 

 

Susan Gladstone and the Jewish Museum of Florida — FIU

 

SUSAN GLADSTONE is the Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. Gladstone has served in several prominent leadership positions in the U.S. and abroad, most recently as director of development for the museum and for all of FIU’s Jewish Strategic Initiatives – including the university’s Global Jewish Studies Program, Holocaust Studies and Hillel FIU.

 

 

 

 

Zachary Balber: Photographer

 

As Stephen Spielberg was reintroduced to Judaism through filming Schindler’s List, ZACHARY BALBER’s reconnection point was photographing tattooed men for his “Tamim” series. Despite his initial rejection of Judaism, Balber’s portraits led him to rediscover the culture that is now his lifeline.

 

 

 

 

Carla Berkowitz Brings “Critical Thinking” to the Screen

 

CARLA BERKOWITZ is the Executive Producer of the highly acclaimed independent feature film Critical Thinking. The film, directed by and starring the Emmy-award winning actor John Leguizamo, tells the true story of the 1998 Miami Jackson Senior High School chess team, which was the first LatinX inner city team to win the U.S. National Chess Championship. Berkowitz spent over 20 years developing the project from story to screenplay to film.

 

 

 

A Prophet in Our Own Land: A Personal Reminiscence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

My father, Ernest Gordon, was Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University and had been corresponding with Dr. King since 1956. I remember the winter of 1960, near the end of January, when King took the train up from Washington, D.C., and we picked him up in our old Peugeot station wagon at the Trenton railroad station.

King was incredibly charming and took time to chat about things that my sister and I had interest in. He asked us about school, what books we were reading, and what sports we liked to play.

He then took a nap and came down a few hours later to meet the professors, students, civil rights workers and campus leaders of SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) who had assembled for the evening in our living room.  — ALASTAIR GORDON

 

 

 

 

Artist Mira Lehr Continues to Peak

 

MIRA LEHR is an eco-feminist artist whose career spans four decades. Her nature-based imagery encompasses painting, design, sculpture and video installations. Lehr’s processes include non-traditional media such as resin, gunpowder, fire, Japanese paper, dyes and welded steel.

 

 

 

 

The Remarkable Jonathan Plutzik

 

JONATHAN PLUTZIK, with high-quality, hands-on support from his wife Lesley, his son Zach, and his sister Deborah has created a cultural Mecca, THE BETSY HOTEL, in the heart of South Beach – offering chamber music, opera, jazz, poetry in many forms, writers’ breakfast salons, a writer-in-residency program, art exhibitions, a cappella festivals, and much more – all free of charge to the public.

 

 

 

 

Artist Lynne Golob Gelfman

 

LYNNE GOLOB GELFMAN grew up in New York. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and then earned an MFA at the School of the Arts, Columbia University. She taught art at the Dalton School in New York from 1968 until 1972, the year that she and her husband started a flower farm outside Bogotá, Colombia, and moved to Miami — an import gateway city for flowers — where she lived until her recent passing. For Gelfman, who had loved Bogotá as an American Field Service student in 1961, the culture and landscape of Colombia, as well as the diverse, subtropical world of Miami are important influences.

 

 

 

 

FREDRICK KAUFMAN is the composer of over one hundred and thirty compositions that have been performed by leading orchestras worldwide. In addition, Kaufman is a former Fulbright Scholar, and author of “The African Roots of Jazz,” a groundbreaking study that drew heavily on his early musical life as a jazz trumpet player with the Woody Herman Band.