Little known Little Satchmo
Sharon Preston-Folta, for decades a secret daughter of jazz icon Louis Armstrong, went public with her family story eight years ago with the publication of a memoir that is now being made into a documentary. The memoir, Little Satchmo: Living in the Shadow of My Father, Louis Daniel Armstrong, dispels the myth that Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong died childless and details Armstrong’s previously unknown side as a family man and devoted father. Little Satchmo makes its screen debut in 2021, with Preston-Folta, who lives in Sarasota and hosts TownTalk TampaBay on WSLR 96.5 FM, providing narration and interviews. Creative Pinellas Professional Artist grant award winner Lea Umberger is producing the film.
The write stuff
The Central West Coast Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (CWC-FPRA) is hosting “Writing Tools – Essential Strategies for Every Writer” on January 13 at noon, featuring veteran writer Roy Peter Clark. During the virtual event, Clark will be discussing how all writers can improve their skills. Clark is a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, which owns the Tampa Bay Times. Tickets for the program are $10/FPRA members, $15/guests; cost includes access to the recordings after the event. To register, visit www.cwcfpra.com/events. This event is sponsored by Heidi Smith Communications.
The Charlie Hounchell Art Stars Scholarships 2021 call to applicants is now open. The nonprofit Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts (TBBCA) annually awards scholarships of $2,500 each in six fine and performing arts disciplines:
Dance, Theatre, Instrumental Music, Vocal Music, Visual Arts, and Literary Arts. The scholarship is open to high school juniors and seniors in Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Pasco counties. Students may apply in one, more, or all disciplines, but separate applications must be submitted for each discipline. There is no fee. Deadline to apply is Feb. 23. Winners are selected based on talent and merit by a panel of judges who are experts in their respective fields. To apply go to app.mykaleidoscope.com/scholarship/TBBCA.
Nature journaling with Vinny and Sal
In the spirit of Vincent van Gogh and our current Van Gogh Alive exhibition, we are going to practice being inspired by the beauty of nature around us. Enjoy a walk from The Dalí Museum to Demen’s Landing with time to journal about your experience—prompted by the teachers of Keep St. Pete Lit. We will stop to write once we get to the park, and you will be guided by writing prompts we will provide. All participants will be provided with a journal and pen. Please bring a beach towel to sit on or a chair if that’s more comfortable for you.
When: Jan. 16, 10am-noon
Cost: $10
If you can’t make it to the January event we’ll be doing it again April 10.
Gulfport’s Fine Arts Festival returns Feb. 13-14. The sixth annual juried event hosts artists from all over the country but with a focus on Pinellas County painters, potters, jewelers, mixed media artists, and more. Meet local and nationally known artists and add to your collection.
“Given Circumstances” is a term actors use to define the set of parameters surrounding a character’s life. It could include their setting, obstacles and conflicts, relationships and goals. The theater industry has been dealt a rough hand in 2020. But many artists and theatre makers, including American Stage, have taken these “given circumstances” and have decided to go “all in.” They’ve leaned into the changes and challenges and have become more creative and innovative than ever. Without the benefit of a paying, live audience, or even without being able to share a space together as creative teams, they have continued their storytelling traditions in new, reimagined ways. Given the circumstances, they hope you will reimagine supporting American Stage, Tampa Bay’s longest-running professional live theater. To donate click www.americanstage.org/donate-now.
Or, get on stage yourself
American Stage Education’s winter classes include both in-person (outdoors) and virtual options. In-person outdoor classes have capacity limitations and a mask requirement.
When: Jan. 23-Feb. 27
Cost: $200 in-person, $150-$165 virtual
Youth Classes
In-Person and Outdoors – at The Factory St. Pete
Florida Safari Onstage (Grades K-5) Saturdays, 10am-noon. Students will go on the ultimate safari, exploring some of Florida’s most exciting nature elements while developing fun performance skills. Shakespeare’s Travels (Grades 6-12) Saturdays, 10am-noon. Students will immerse themselves in the beauty and power of natural landscapes as well as Shakespeare’s words.
Virtual
Speaking & Performing On Camera (grades 6-12) Saturdays, 2:30-4pm. Students will learn how to communicate effectively, whether in front of a camera, an audience, at school or with loved ones.
Adult Classes
In-Person and Outdoors – at Bayboro Brewery Courtyard
Improv Reboot Tuesdays, 6:30-8:30pm. Students will dive back into long-form improv, and practice, perform and collaborate to create comedic scenes.Live, Laugh, Improv! Thursdays, 6:30-8:30pm. This energetic improv class explores the joy of comedy and short-form improv in an approachable setting, accessible to all.
Virtual
Sketch Writing 2 Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm. Continuing the skills learned in Sketch Writing 1, students will examine how comedy is portrayed in various forms of media, elevate their understanding of comedic formats/scenarios, and explore techniques for writing dialogue for professional actors.
Learn more about classes and register by visiting www.americanstage.org/youthclasses for youth classes, www.americanstage.org/masterclasses for adult classes.
It’s not too early to think about Valentine’s Day
How about treating your darling to an afternoon of Couple’s Portraits with Shawn Dell Joyce? Learn proportions of the human head, then draw a portrait of each other (with a little help from a portrait artist) to create a one-of-a-kind Valentine’s Day present and experience you will always remember! Couples only! Open to beginners and advanced. Materials supplied, or bring a pad of charcoal paper, 2B or 4B pencil, charcoal or Conte. This is a hybrid class and can be taken in-studio or online depending on preference.
When: Feb. 13, 2-5pm
Cost: $60
For more information and to register see: moreanartscenter.org/valentines-couples-portraits or call 727-822-7872.
And for even more romance
Consider the Morean’s Death Valley Photographic Trip. Explore the largest National Park in the lower 48 with this week-long photographic trek with adventure photographer Beth Reynolds. Once filled with gold and silver miners and hundreds of people harvesting borax, Death Valley is diverse and historical with dozens of spectacular places to photograph. Accommodations will be at Stovepipe Wells inside the park. You will also travel to Lone Pine at the base of Mt. Whitney to photograph the famous Alabama Hills. Students are responsible for travel, food, and lodging. The Morean will provide all information for booking your travel and organization for each day while there.
When: Saturday-Sunday, March 6-13
Pre-class: We will discuss what to bring, what you will see, landscape images, etc. About 6 weeks before.
Post-class: Slide show, dinner and debrief, about a month after. Display selected images at the Morean.
Accommodations: Stovepipe Wells, www.deathvalleyhotels.com.
Tuition: $575. Tuition covers pre- and post-class sessions, onsite lectures and lessons, logistics and planning, park passes, and our final photo exhibit. Airfare, hotel, food and incidentals are YOUR responsibility.
Questions: email Beth.Reynolds@MoreanArtsCenter.org
Registration: by phone 727-822-7872 ext 2110, or online www.tinyurl.com/ybjmmg6o
Limited to 15 students. Registration closes Feb. 1.
Seminole-based storyteller and illustrator Vincent Castro recently published Shoes, All Walks of Life, with the aspiration of turning it into an animation for audiences worldwide. The book contains motivational elements to inspire people of all ages to become more confident. It satisfies a yearning for educational and moral values, with added nuggets of wisdom for all ages.
Complete with 11 vibrant illustrations, the book takes readers into the life of Mikey, a middle-schooler at Cobbler Middle School Academy, and follows his day-to-day adventures with challenges like bullying, social cliques, and a romantic interest.
Throughout the story, readers gain wisdom and motivation by seeing how Mikey reinvents himself and attracts positive things into his life and uses a new philosophy of living to excel. “Live music with a view,” the popular Music in the Afternoon Series, is back in Horan Park on select Sundays from 2-4pm. Lew Barrows & the Rhythm Kings will be performing live music while guests sit back and enjoy the beautiful scenery at Horan Park. This is a free event; seating is not provided. For more information please call 727-363-9245 or visit us at www.spbrec.com. This event takes place at 7701 Boca Ciega Dr. in St. Pete Beach.
Upcoming dates: Jan. 31, Feb. 28, March 28
COLOR RIOT! at the Museum of Fine Arts
This exhibition celebrates the individualism and flair for experimentation in Navajo textiles from the last quarter of the 19th century. Featuring over 80 dazzling works, these textiles reflect ideas and events the Navajo people experienced between 1863 and 1868, the hard years of their imprisonment in the Bosque Redondo, and their subsequent return to a reservation. During this time, weavers absorbed stylistic features of Hispanic textiles and began to work with new materials such as aniline dyes and mass-produced Germantown yarns. Commercial products at trading posts sparked additional design ideas for weavers. This touched off their experiments with color and design. No longer weaving for their traditional trade partners, and working at a time when outside market influences were at a low point, the Navajo were free to experiment with form and color. On display now through March 14.
Sensory Saturdays at the MFA
The MFA welcomes families with children with sensory sensitivities to explore the galleries with us every second Saturday of the month, from 10am to 2pm. During this time, all rotating audio components will be turned down or muted to ensure a calm environment. Visitors will receive a pre-packaged sensory bag with a guiding prompt, sketching materials, or other sensory-friendly activities. Free for members, or with the cost of admission. Advance ticketing is required as capacity is limited in the galleries.
Meanwhile across the bridge
The USF Institute for Research in Art in the College of The Arts will launch a new exhibition titled Still Here: The Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives in Context, on Friday, Jan. 22, with a virtual Zoom-based reception at 6pm. Griffith J. Davis (1923-1993) was internationally acclaimed for “painting” memorable masterpieces with the camera, pen and typewriter rather than paintbrush and canvas. A pioneer international photographer, journalist, U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer, and photo-documentarian, Davis’s artistic and iconic photographs capture historical moments and figures, lifestyles, personalities and people across a spectrum of political, socio-economic and artistic sectors at the vortex of the Civil Rights Movement and the Independence Movement of Africa.
The exhibition will be on view through March 6. Reservations will be required to visit USFCAM; masks and social distancing are required on campus. Check www.cam.usf.edu for reservation information and opening status.
The Tampa Museum of Art (TMA) received a $255,158 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support expanded and enhanced museum programming over two years. The influx of funds will allow TMA to extend its existing art therapy-informed interventions online and expand virtual engagement opportunities to families participating in the Museums for All program. Primary project components will include art therapy-informed in-gallery conversations between parents and children, take-home art supplies and online videos for extended learning, and online engagement for families unable to visit the museum’s downtown campus.
The IMLS grant will also fund the development of arts education curriculum materials as part of TMA’s partnership with Hillsborough County Public Schools. Teachers wishing to participate in TMA’s programs can find more information at www.TampaMuseum.org/Learn/Educators.
And you thought Gulfport was wacky
The Peninsularium is coming to Ybor Heights. It’s touted by the Crab Devil artist collective as an immersive arts attraction imagined as a family-friendly cabinet of curiosities ripe with kitsch, bizarre history, and fantastical lore showcasing Florida at its most weird and wild, presented through the guise of a typical roadside establishment, the Crab Devil Bait Shop. As customers enter the functioning bait shop, they are encouraged to explore the attached museum, where they are transported into an otherworldly series of unique, immersive spaces showcasing the eccentric culture and curious existence of the nation’s most infamous peninsula. Drawing on Tampa’s history as a port city and center of maritime commerce, The Peninsularium will be constructed from an assemblage of repurposed shipping containers harkening back to the traveling circuses of the early 1900s. Housed alongside one of Tampa’s premier contemporary art galleries, Tempus Projects, as well as the boundary-defying brewing operation of Deviant Libation, this joint venture will serve as a one-stop-shop for all things creative and interesting about Tampa’s past, present, and future. For more information see www.crabdevil.com.
Music lovers rejoice
The Florida Orchestra announced its slate of concerts in January as it continues to roll out its reimagined 2021 season. All January concerts will be conducted by Michael Francis, TFO music director, at the Mahaffey Theater. TFO will be following strict CDC guidelines for health and safety. In addition to in-person concerts, TFO will continue to offer live-stream and on-demand video for free so everyone has access to the music during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks series and Masterworks: Soundwaves programs will take place on the same weekends. Why offer five concerts in one weekend? It’s the result of Francis splitting the orchestra into two smaller ensembles of 20-40 players for greater spacing onstage. The silver lining: twice the music.
Free live-streaming concerts also are available at www.FloridaOrchestra.org/livestreams. To support this new service, TFO is encouraging donations so we can continue to offer digital concerts with no barriers during the pandemic and beyond. Available now:
• Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony, Saturday, Jan. 9, 8pm
• Rachmaninoff on Paganini, Saturday, Jan. 23, 8pm
• Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, Saturday, Jan. 30, 8pm