Legendary International Opera Star & Civil Rights Trailblazer, Grace Bumbry

      The ArtSage Alliance is an innovative and unique inter-generational and multi-cultural fine arts partnership of Venetian Arts Society (VAS), Nova Southeastern University (NSU), and John Knox Village (JKV).

The Alliance will celebrate Black History Month in a five (5) series of diverse artistic experiences with all peoples of South Florida February 10-14, 2020.

Black History Month was federally recognized and designated in 1976 and calls for all Americans “to seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Our goal, in the words of Mary McLeod Bethune, is to unleash the “power and potential” in today’s youth and inspire “courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends!”

Please join us and the 2020 VAS Icon of the Arts Honoree Grace Bumbry, Legendary International Opera Star & Civil Rights Trailblazer. Ms. Bumbry, one of the greatest opera stars of the 20th century, is known for her fiery passion and dramatic performances on the stage. With a career spanning over 60 years, Bumbry was part of the pioneering generation of Black opera singers that followed Marian Anderson, paving the road for later classical musicians and opera singers. With her mastery of the bel canto technique, Bumbry is one of the more successful singers who made the difficult transition from mezzo-soprano to high soprano. She has performed at such opera houses at Royal Opera House, La performing the role of Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth in 1987. On Dec. 6, 2009, she was among those honored with the 2009 she was among those honored with the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors, for her many contributions to the performing arts.

The ArtSage Alliance celebrates the African American influence on American music in all of its glory and variety. This is an intimidating—if not impossible—task. African American influences are so fundamental to American music that there would be no American music without them. People of African descent were among the earliest non-indigenous settlers of what would become the United States, and the rich African musical heritage that they carried with them was part of the foundation of a new American musical culture that mixed African traditions with those of Europe and the Americas. Their work songs, dance tunes, and religious music—and the syncopated, swung, remixed, rocked, and rapped music of their descendants—would become the “common language” of all the nationalities that made American tapestry, influencing Americans of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. The music of African Americans is one of the most poetic and inescapable examples of the importance of the African American experience to the cultural heritage of all Americans, regardless of race or origin.  for equality and unity and to learn the lessons that history has taught us and to never forget them.