Inclusivity is on display daily across our downtown Cary streets, and during the month of February the focus is on events, gatherings, and entertainment in honor of Black History Month. Here’s a rundown of what to expect, specifically taking place downtown.
What: Musical Foundations, Black Music in America
When: Various Dates in February | The Cary Theater
“Jazz on a Summer’s Day” | Feb. 4-6
Filmed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island and directed by world-renowned photographer Bert Stern, Jazz on a Summer’s Day features intimate performances by an all-star line-up of musical legends including Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O’Day, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, and closes with a beautiful rendition of The Lord’s Prayer by Mahalia Jackson at midnight to usher in Sunday morning.
“Amazing Grace” | Feb. 11-13
A behind-the-scenes documentary about the recording of Aretha Franklin’s best-selling album finally sees the light of day more than four decades after the original footage was shot.
Sign “O” The Times | Feb. 18 & 20
Music legend Prince and his band perform 13 numbers, most of them from his double album, “Sign ‘o’ the Times.” This is high-energy stuff: neon signs flash above the stage, suggesting the honky-tonk district of a big city, and between numbers there are vignettes of street life. Sheila E, Boni Boyer and Cat provide rhythmic, vocal and physical pyrotechnics while Sheena Easton appears in a film within a film, her rock video “U Got the Look.”
Wattstax | Feb. 27
Exciting, vibrant documentary record of the 1972 Wattstax music festival in the community of Watts in Los Angeles. The festival marked the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots and set out to be an African-American answer to Woodstock and featured superb appearances from Rufus Thomas, Issac Hayes, The Staple Sisters, The Bar Kay and Albert King with euphoric support from Richard Pryor and Jesse Jackson. Wattstax is a vital document of American cultural history.
What: Black Experiences on Film
When: Various Dates in February | The Cary Theater
Ailey | Feb. 3-5
Alvin Ailey was a trailblazing pioneer who found salvation through dance. AILEY traces the full contours of this brilliant and enigmatic man whose search for the truth in movement resulted in enduring choreography that centers on the Black American experience with grace, strength, and unparalleled beauty. Told through Ailey’s own words and featuring evocative archival footage and interviews with those who intimately knew him, director Jamila Wignot weaves together a resonant biography of an elusive visionary.
My Name Is Pauli Murry | Feb. 10-11
Fifteen years before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat, a full decade before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned separate-but-equal legislation, Pauli Murray was already knee-deep fighting for social justice. A pioneering attorney, activist, priest and dedicated memoirist, Murray shaped landmark litigation—and consciousness— around race and gender equity. Told largely in Pauli’s own words, My Name is Pauli Murray is a candid recounting of that unique and extraordinary journey.
Daughters of the Dust | Feb. 17-18
At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina – former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions – struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots.
42 | Feb. 25-26
In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and faces considerable racism in the process.
What: 26th Annual African American Celebration: A Legacy of Pride Presenting “Music of the Civil Rights Movement”
When: Saturday, February 19, 2 – 4 p.m. | Cary Arts Center
Presented in partnership with the Ujima Group (you might remember them from the Kwanzaa Celebration), this event will be a “historical journey through time highlighting the role of music and its contributions to the civil rights movement.”