BY KARINA CASTILLO
Jamaica Center for the Arts and Learning (JCAL) is celebrating Black History Month with various performances, exhibits and film screenings throughout February.
The Jamaica Performing Arts Center will host two performances during the month: “Fences” and “The United African Dance Troupe: The Year of the Calabash.”
“Fences,” which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, begins its four-day run on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7:30 p.m. Written by August Wilson and directed by Arthur French, the play depicts African-American life during the 1950s examining important themes like race relations.
“The United African Dance Troupe: The Year of the Calabash,” directed by Patricia Ghizamboule Robinson, will run on Saturday, Feb. 27, at 7:30 p.m.
The Community Gallery will host the exhibition “Black Royals” through Mar. 31. On loan from the American Museum of Nassau County, the exposition displays portraits of important figures in black history, from Queen Phillipa of Hainault, the mother of famed medieval warrior knight Edward the Black, to “the grandmother of European Royalty,” Queen Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 400 years later.
From Feb. 5 through March 24, the works of members of the WEUSI Artists Collective will be on display in the WEUSI.com exhibition in the Robert Miller Gallery. The gallery highlights contemporary African American art.
The film “The Ghost of Amistad” will be screened at the Black Box Theater on Feb. 19 at 6:30 p.m. The film explores the Amistad slave ship rebellion followed by a discussion by Dr. Philip Misevich and Dr. Konrad Tuchscherer.
