A new exhibit celebrating the contributions African-Americans have made to the sport of thoroughbred horse racing will open in February 2011 at the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum in Aiken, S.C.

The exhibit, timed to coincide with Black History Month, will document the roles black Americans have played throughout the sport’s history. For instance, from 1875 to 1902, African-American jockeys dominated the Kentucky Derby, with 11 different black jockeys winning the Run for the Roses a combined 15 times.

The City of Aiken, which runs the museum, is seeking stories, photos and artifacts relating to thoroughbred racing and breeding from African Americans wherever they live for the exhibit. All materials will be returned to their lenders after the exhibit closes.

If you have, or know someone who may have, historical artifacts relating to African-Americans and thoroughbred horse racing, please contact Lisa Hall, Hall of Fame program supervisor for the City of Aiken Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department, by email to lhall@cityofaikensc.gov or halloffame@cityofaikensc.gov.

Everyone else is invited to visit the exhibit when it opens in Aiken in February of next year.

Story about the exhibit in The Aiken Standard

Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum home page

What: Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival

Where: Chaddsford Winery 632 Baltimore Pike Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania 19317 (map)

When: September 4–6 from 12 p.m.–6 p.m

And jazz have gone together ever since Miles Davis poured a bottle of pinot noir down the bell of his trumpet and blew it into the open mouth of Dizzy Gillespie. Simmer to grooves of wine-inspired jazz with today’s Groupon: for $12, you get one admission to the Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival at the Chaddsford Winery, running September 4–6 from 12 p.m.–6 p.m.

With tastings of Chaddsford Winery’s award-winning wines and performances from jazz bands, the Labor Day Weekend Jazz Festival promises to be a jubilant holiday-weekend jaunt. Sample Chaddsford’s full lineup of grapen goodness in a complimentary souvenir wine glass. The winery’s crisp, dry whites will playfully pique palates, while the wide array of dry reds whets wine appetites with classy merlot, cabernet, and due rossi. Founded in 1982, Chaddsford Winery is cultivated by founders Eric and Lee Miller, who have a combined 60 years of experience in enology, viticulture, and the study of smashing champagne bottles onto doomed ocean liners.

At least two jazz bands are scheduled for each day, so you can nod and blink to the Budesa Brothers Trio (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.) or the world jazz beats of Siora (Monday, 3:30 p.m.). Food will be available from Pace One Restaurant, but guests are encouraged to bring their Batman Returns blanket and picnic in the serene Chester County countryside.

Philadelphia Fringe has long been known for the breath of its offerings. It has attracted artists from a wide range of media and an even wider range of quality. Fortunately, with it’s wedding to the more polished Live Arts Theatre Festival still fresh, Fringe goers this year can look forward to truly groundbreaking work of every possible type. What follows is just a taste of what fringe has to offer the festival t theatre goer this year:

eight choreographers / eight new works

Live arts headline series features new dance pieces by young, exciting Philadelphia choreographers. Shavon Norris, Jumatatu Poe, Daniele Strawmyre  are among the artist showcasing work exploring the richness of existence, the traditions of the church and good old blood horror respectively.

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=12961

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=12957

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=12965

A New Shade of Blue:

As a tribute to Billie Holiday, several legendary ladies of jazz, and other contributing artists, Destiny Productions Theater Ensemble offers a stirring performance of singing, acting, and dancing that is sure to entertain, educate, and inspire, while providing nostalgic moments from the Harlem Renaissance.

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=13214

Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

Interracial relationships are explored within the context of Aparteid-era south African in this DysFUNctional Theater play. From the description: “Private lives invaded, exposed, illuminated. In a frightening dystopia that may be apartheid-era South Africa, a black man and a white woman risk the dangers of illegal love. Shocking, powerful. The personal is political.”

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=13501

Stew and The Negro Problem

In a proformance sure to please bronet followers, Stew and the Negro Problem will be performing a full set from their Tony Award winning musical, Passing Strange, as well as work from a new production.

Led by Stew and Obie award-winning Heidi Rodewald, this Afro Baroque cabaret ensemble is coveted for their literate precision, sly humor, and deep emotional resonance, hovering between the divergent worlds of rock and theater. Stew’s performances have been compared in the same breath with Kurt Weill, Burt Bacharach, and Jackie Gleason.

Also featured is a free screening of Spike Lee’s film version of Passing Strange on September 9^th.

http://www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=12856

For more information on these and many other Fringe events, visit them at www.livearts-fringe.org.

What: The Premiere of The Barrel of A Gun

Where: Kimmel Center 260 South Broad Street (map)

When: Tuesday, September 21, 7pm

While murder trial of Mumia Abu Jamal remains in the appeals process, the impact of his death sentence remains force.. Protest posters can still be seen on local lightposts. Updates continue to state of the trial continue to arise and internationally, the cause of Mumia remains a rallying call for political radical organizations.

On september 21, a contriversal movie opens diving into the circomstances behind the shooting of officer Daniel Faulkner. The film includes interviews with Governor Ed Rendel, current DA Seth Williams, Officer Faulkner’s widow Maureen and many others.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pioneer filmmaker Oscar Micheaux was honored Tuesday on a new U.S. postage stamp.

The 44-cent stamp is the latest in the agency’s Black Heritage stamp series. It was released at ceremonies in New York and is on sale nationwide.

Michaeux was a director, screenwriter, producer and distributor who was involved in more than 40 films chronicling the experience of African Americans.

“His films not only entertained, they left audiences with a sense of encouragement, hope and inspiration,” postal vice president Delores Killette said in a statement.

(click here for more)

Black Culture and the Law

Bryan Wagner’s Disturbing the Peace is a re-imagination of the possibilities of cultural history. Rather than subjecting his source material–early twentieth-century popular music, the recordings of folklorists, novels, and newspaper articles, all supplemented by prodigious secondary reading–to the traditional analytical methods of social history, Wagner uses them to experiment with voice and temporality in a way that troubles our understanding of folklore, black culture, and the construction of history itself. He admits a degree of “speculation, and even presumption” in his work, but believes it is worth it if “the book succeeds in making otherwise unimaginable connections appear indelible, even for a moment” (p. 237).

(Click here to continue)

What: Reading of the new play “Hello, America… my name is Jimmy Baldwin” by Robert H. Miller, Ph.D.

When: Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Where: Robin’s Bookstore ~ 110A S. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA

Moonstone gets colorfully funk with a joint performance by Brooklyn Hip-hop artist Ceaser Live Soul and visual artist Nassunni. From the website:

Over the past three years, Ceaser Live Soul has been one of the finest up and coming Hip Hop lyricists on Tri-State music scene. Originally from Brooklyn, NY the young MC is forging a legacy of charity and empowerment through his contributions in music and community outreach programs.

Nassunni: Visual Artist, Spoken word Poet, Advocate against domestic and social violence. As an up and coming Visual Artist, she has collaborated some of her artwork with her poetry on clothes, paint boards, and other canvasses of choice. Nassunni’s work has been shown at the Black Women’s Arts Festival for 3 consecutive years, as well as several small venues throughout the city of Philadelphia, Pa.’

(click here for more information)

The Broadway musical “Fela!” may be closing in January, but it is going out in style. The Grammy winner Patti LaBelle is planning to join the cast at the Eugene O’Neill Theater on Sept. 14 as Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Anikulapo-Kuti, a spokesman for the show said on Thursday.

“After seeing the show, I was struck by the choreography and work of Bill T. Jones, and the passion and joy that overflows from the stage,” Ms. LaBelle said in a press release. “Fela’s mother, Funmilayo, was a strong, truly inspiring woman, and I am so privileged to be able to pay tribute to her on the Broadway stage.”

(click here for more)