Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo will honor 2020 winners at virtual ceremony
Updated 3:47 PM;
Today 3:47 PM
The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo will honor the winners of the 2020 Community Arts Awards in a virtual ceremony on April 14, 2021. (Photo provided to MLive from Arts Council)
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KALAMAZOO, MI The Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo announced Tuesday that its previously postponed 2020 Community Arts Awards celebration is going virtual.
Initially scheduled to be held in-person at the Wellspring Theater on Dec. 1, the celebration will now take place virtually at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, premiering live on the Arts Council’s website.
The virtual celebration will feature speeches from award recipients and their nominators, as well as performances by Face Off Theatre Company, Farmers Alley Theatre, Jingqui Liu, Kalamazoo Chinese Academy, Kalamazoo West African Drummers, Last Gasp Collective and Rootead Youth Dance Company.
Credit Courtesy of Sonya Bernard-Hollins
Sonya Bernard-Hollins graduated in 1993 from Western Michigan University with a degree in English and journalism. She named her Merze Tate Explorers travel club after a fellow alumna, Merze Tate, who, in 1927, became the first African-American to earn a bachelor’s degree from WMU. The group s members, who are in fourth through 12th grades, are exposed to careers and the world through traveling, meeting trailblazing women and doing multi-media projects.
Tate spoke five languages. She was a world traveler and high-school and college educator in history. Tate would expand her students’ world view by taking them on trips. Bernard-Hollins has authored a children s book about this accomplished woman. She also developed a traveling exhibit about Tate. It debuted at the Michigan Women s Hall of Fame in 2011.