Art

AFRO Exclusive: Area Artist Highlights Black Georgetown, Receives Award from Arena Stage

THE AFRO — An area artist, Lindsey Brittain Collins, has dedicated much of her career to examining topics of economic and social issues through art and is now being honored as an “Emerging Leader,” by Arena Stage at their annual gala.

Published

6 years ago

May 21, 2019

Oakland Post

By Micha Green

An area artist, Lindsey Brittain Collins, has dedicated much of her career to examining topics of economic and social issues through art and is now being honored as an “Emerging Leader,” by Arena Stage at their annual gala on May 21.

Brittain Collins will receive the “Emerging Leader Award” at the Mead Center for American Theater, 1101 Sixth Street, S.W.

Brittain Collins will be awarded alongside National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg, who will be presented the “Beth Newburger Schwartz Award,” and legendary actress Katherine Turner will headline the event and host an intimate reception the evening before.

“I’m glad I’m being recognized for the work that I’m doing and I’m super excited that the focus is on the arts. I think at a time where more and more arts are being pulled from schools and programs are losing funding, it’s important to encourage community engagement and encourage exposure to the arts,” Brittain Collins told the AFRO in an exclusive interview. “Arena Stage does a fantastic job doing that, and it’s exciting that all the proceeds from the gala will go back to their community engagement program.”

Brittain Collins looks to the community for inspiration for her work.

I’m a visual artist, primarily a painter, but I also work in sculpture, installation and collage, but generally categorize my work as paintings. And my work is really the intersection – economics and race – are the topics I focus on the most,” she said. “So my background actually academically is in business and in economics, and sociology, so I leverage my academic background in that, to examine economic and social issues through painting. And a big focus in my work since moving back to the D.C. area has been gentrification.”

The D.M.V. native was shocked about the major gentrification in the area.

“I’m originally from this area and then left when I was younger, came back, and just seeing how much things have changed since I was here many years ago to now really sparked an interest and a focus on telling the narratives on the people and the communities that have been displaced as the city has evolved and become more gentrified,” she told the AFRO.

One of the areas Brittain Collins chose to examine was Georgetown, now known as a traditionally, White affluent neighborhood.

“My latest series, it’s called “No Name in the Street,” inspired by James Baldwin’s work, unearthed the lost Black history of Georgetown. Georgetown used to be a predominantly Black neighborhood and nobody knows that. Georgetown does nothing to feature the Black history that was there,” she said. “They’ve done a pretty good job in isolating themselves from the city. They wouldn’t let the metro come there because they wanted to keep certain populations out, and Georgetown has a certain reputation about the type of crowd that is there, and that does not include Blacks and Black history.”

It took some exploring in Georgetown for Brittain Collins to learn more about Georgetown’s Black history.

“I was kind of walking around Georgetown, and I discovered behind some new condo buildings, a slave graveyard and the graveyard is broken into two parts. So there’s like a beautiful part of the graveyard, it’s well kept, that’s where all the White folks are buried, and a part that’s rundown, that the people that live in the condo kind of use as a dog park- but that’s where slaves were buried. And turns out, that area was actually a stop on the Underground Railroad, which is fantastic, but nobody knows about it.”

Unearthing such stories is why Brittain Collins’ work has been so well received and is now being recognized by Arena Stage.

“You’re going into Dean and Deluca or you’re going into this bank, not realizing the rich history that was there. So through my work I try to tell those stories and share that history. And I think people who are excited to learn new things and understand more about the history of the city that they live in- or the capital of our country,” Brittain Collins told the AFRO.

“That’s why this work is important and that’s why I’m so passionate about it. The arts are important because they have the capacity to reach a broader audience.”

The artist, who also serves on the Art & Architectural Review Board for the state of Virginia, said she would continue to be stimulated by the area.

“Being in the space is really inspiring and fuels the research, so while I’m here, I’m going to continue to push that work forward,” she said.

Yet once the artist and scholar moves to New York City to begin her MFA program at Columbia University this fall, she hopes to be inspired by factors in her new community and continue creating.

“I have to make work… It’s something I have to do, and it’s the only way I know how to communicate and express myself.”

For more information on the gala visit arenastage.org/gala. To purchase an individual ticket or table, contact Maria Corso at 202-600-4025 or email RSVP@arenastage.org or for corporate sponsorship packages contact Char Manlove-Laws at 202-600-4030 or email cmanlove-laws@arenastage.org.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Activism

Griot Theater Company Presents August Wilson’s Work at Annual Oratorical Featuring Black Authors

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Published

4 months ago

February 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Late playwright August Wilson. Wikipedia photo.

By Godfrey Lee

Griot Theater Company will present their Fifth Annual Oratorical with August Wilson’s “Half a Century,” at the Belrose on 1415 Fifth Ave., in San Rafael near the San Rafael Public Library.

The performance explores the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson whose 10-play Century Cycle chronicles the African American experience across the 20^th century, with each play set in a different decade. “Half a Century” journeys through the final five plays of this monumental cycle, bringing Wilson’s richly woven stories to life in a way that celebrates history, resilience, and the human spirit.

Previous performance highlighting essential Black American authors included Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Lorraine Hansberry with Langston Hughes.

The play will be performed at 3:00. p.m. on Feb. 20, 21, 22, 27, and 28 at 7:00 p.m., and on Feb. 23 at 3:00 p.m.

For more information, go to griottheatercompany.squarespace.com/productions-v2

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Activism

MLK Day of Service Volunteers Make Blankets and Art for Locals in Need

“Everyone has an opportunity to participate,” said Glenda Roberts, kinship support care program manager at CCYSB. “Our nonprofit organization and participants recognize how important it is to give back to the community and this is serving. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.’”

Published

5 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Photo courtesy of the nonprofit.

By Kathy Chouteau
The Richmond Standard

The Contra Costa Youth Service Bureau (CCYSB) and Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church (BMBC) are collaborating with a team of volunteers for a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Monday, Jan. 20 that will wrap the community’s most vulnerable people in warm blankets and provide them with an uplifting gift of art.

Volunteers will kick off their activities at BMBC at 11 a.m., making blankets for the unhoused people served by the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP) and art for those in convalescence in Richmond.

Others will get to work preparing a lunch of chili, salad, a veggie tray, and water for participants, offered courtesy of CCYSB, while supplies last.

“People of all ages are welcome to participate in the MLK Day of Service,” said Roberts. Volunteers can RSVP via phone to Glenda Roberts at 510-215-4670, ext. 125.

CCYSB Boardmember Jackie Marston and her friends donated the materials and supplies to make the blankets and art projects. The nonprofit is also providing the day’s complimentary lunch, as well as employees to volunteer, under the direction of CCYSB Executive Director Marena Brown.

BMBC, led by Rev. Dr. Carole McKindley-Alvarez, is providing the facility for the event and volunteers from the church, which is located at 684 Juliga Woods St. in Richmond.

Located in Richmond, CCYSB is a nonprofit youth advocacy organization that serves eligible children, youth, and low-income families with a variety of wraparound services so they can thrive. Programs include academic achievement, youth mentorship, truancy prevention and direct response.

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Art

Vandalism at Richmond Ferry Terminal Saddens Residents

Residents have been lamenting the destruction online. Ellen Seskin posted photos of the vandalism to the Facebook group, Everybody’s Richmond, on Jan. 12, saying she encountered it while out on a walk. “It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

Published

5 months ago

January 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Graffiti mars the walkway at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Photo by Kathy Chouteau, The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

“This is why we can’t have nice things,” stated the post on NextDoor.

The post referenced images of graffiti at the Richmond Ferry Terminal. Not just on the terminal, but also on public artwork, on trail signs, on public benches and the boardwalk.

On Wednesday, the Standard stopped by to see it for ourselves. The good news was that it appears the graffiti on the terminal and on the artwork, called Changing Tide, have been cleaned for the most part. But graffiti remained abundant in the area around the relatively new ferry terminal, which opened to the public just six years ago.

Graffiti artists tagged benches and the boardwalk. Cars that had done doughnuts in the street marked the cul-de-sac just outside the historic Craneway Pavilion.

A ferry worker told us the graffiti had been there since before he started working for the ferry service about a week ago.

A member of the Army Corps of Engineers who did not want to be named in this report called the scene “sad,” as “they’d done such a nice job fixing it up.”

“It’s sad that all this money has been spent and hoodlums just don’t care and are destroying stuff,” he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how soon the graffiti would be removed. The Standard reported the graffiti to the city’s graffiti abatement hotline. We were prompted to leave a message reporting the address and location of the graffiti.

“It was on the sidewalk, the street, the doors to the ferry, even in the art installation and the ‘stone’ benches,” she said. “I reported it but knowing how slow they are about getting things done — I just know that the longer you leave graffiti, the more likely they are to spray it again.”

In the comment section responding to Seskin’s post, local attorney Daniel Butt questioned why there aren’t cameras in the area.

On Nextdoor, one resident suggested searching to see if the tags match any accounts on Instagram, hoping to identify the perpetrator.

On its website, the City of Richmond says residents should graffiti immediately call Public Works graffiti removal and/or Code Enforcement at 510-965-4905.

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report.