Art

Charleston’s Neema Fine Art Gallery kicks off Neema Gallery Arts in Schools Program

CHARLESTON CHRONICLE — The program will provide innovative and exceptionally enriching arts experiences to children in schools throughout Charleston and surrounding areas.

Published

6 years ago

March 14, 2019

Oakland Post

By The Charleston Chronicle

Neema Fine Art Gallery kicked off the start of its Arts in Schools Program with a highly anticipated visit by Neema Gallery artist and children’s book illustrator, April Harrison at James Simons Elem Elementary on March 1, 2019. April shared her journey into becoming an artist and new children’s book to two groups of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders in the school library (approximately 125 in all) before reading and signing copies of her newly release book, “What is Given From the Heart.” The visit was coordinated and facilitated by Meisha Johnson, CEO and Founder of Neema Fine Art Gallery, located at 3 Broad St. in the Historic District of Charleston, SC.

The school visit was followed by an artist opening reception that evening at Neema Fine Art Gallery for Harrison’s exhibit “Nutured, Bonded & Spiritual: The Artistry of April Harrison.” The exhibit will run through the entire month of March.

Meisha Johnson, CEO and Founder of Neema Fine Art Gallery, hopes to help nurture the next generation of fine artists, creatives and art appreciators through the Neema Gallery Arts in Schools Program. The program will provide innovative and exceptionally enriching arts experiences to children in schools throughout Charleston and surrounding areas with a particular concentration on schools that service children who reside in the Eastside of the Charleston peninsula.

April Harrison, of Greenville is a self-taught artist who by her own admission is “merely a vessel being utilized to instinctively create narrative, sentiment and observation.” She is known for her “With Closed Eyes” style and imagery where the viewer is taken on a “journey into a place where time stands still, and life’s special moments, felt by special caresses, tender touches, and fond memories, transport you into a state of inner spirituality, focusing on the nurtured, bonded and spiritual.” Her work is in the public collections of Vanderbilt University, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, the Atlanta Housing Authority, and the Erskine University Museum, and in many private collections including that of Whoopi Goldberg, Honorable Ruth Simmons, Honorable Andrew Young, Jesse L. Martin and Shaun Robinson.

Her work has also been featured on the set of several well known television shows and feature films. Most recently, her work is a part of the living room set of Nickelodeon’s K.C. Undercover featuring teen acting and singing sensation, Zendaya and actor, Kadeem Hardison. “What is Given from the Heart,” was released in Jan. 2019 by Random House and is April’s first children’s book.

The book was written by legendary children’s book author, Patricia McKissack who died in 2017, leaving “What is Given From the Heart” behind as her final work. McKissack is the author of many lauded books for children, including “Let’s Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout,” a Parents Choice Gold Award winner, a New York Public Library, School Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. She is also a three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and Newbery Honor author. McKissack’s final magnificent picture book is a poignant and uplifting celebration of the joy of giving.

“Misery loves company,” Mama says to James Otis. It’s been a rough couple of months for them, but Mama says as long as they have their health and strength, they’re blessed. One Sunday before Valentine’s Day, Reverend Dennis makes an announcement during the service: the Temples have lost everything in a fire, and the church is collecting anything that might be useful to them.

James thinks hard about what he can add to the Temples’“love box,” but what does he have worth giving?

With her extraordinary gift for storytelling, McKissack—with stunning illustrations by Harrison—delivers a touching, powerful tale of compassion and reminds us that what is given from the heart reaches the heart.

April Harrison is represented by Neema Fine Art Gallery, Charleston, South Carolina’s newest art gallery featuring original works of art by both established and standout emerging African-American artists who are from or who currently reside in South Carolina. Located at 3 Broad St., Ste. 100, and positioned at the start of Charleston’s Historic Gallery Row, the gallery opened its doors on Dec. 1, 2018 with a mission to help diversify who shops on the peninsula, increase diversity in terms of the artists who are represented in galleries on the peninsula and help increase the number of successful minority owned businesses on the peninsula. CEO and Founder, Meisha Johnson who also is an artist, arts educator and former special needs teacher, also desires to help address challenges faced by children, families and the elderly who reside in the Eastside of Charleston through innovative arts programming, philanthropy and community organization partnerships.

On June 9th, 2019 Neema Gallery will partner with the Philip Simmons Foundation to host a birthday celebration in honor of legendary Charleston blacksmith and humanitarian, Philip Simmons who passed in 2009. The event will be held at Neema Fine Art Gallery and will include an art exhibit and silent auction of works created by SC artists commemorating the life, work and legacy of Philip Simmons. Funds raised from the exhibit will go towards the establishment of a Philip Simmons Children & Youth Scholars Program that will provide children and youth residing in the Eastside of Charleston with exceptionally enriching and empowering experiences that will help to nurture their God-given gifts and set them on a path to acquiring generational wealth.

For additional information, contact Meisha Johnson, Owner, Curator & Gallery Director at Neema Fine Art a Gallery at neemagallery@gmail.com and (843) 353-8079

This article originally appeared in the Charleston Chronicle.

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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

3 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

4 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

4 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.