Museum Events
African American Heritage Quiz Bowl
The African American Heritage Quiz Bowl is an annual event held in February in celebration of Black History Month. Sixth through twelfth grade students compete for U.S. Savings Bonds and trophies in a contest that tests their knowledge of African Americans in history. The Quiz Bowl increases awareness of the role of African Americans in American history and enlightens all Americans of the contributions that African Americans have made toward the success of our multicultural society.
The Quiz Bowl consists of two divisions. Division I includes students from grades 6-8 and Division II includes students in grades 9-12. Students compete in teams of three. Each team is supervised by at least one coach. Each team member receives an award for participating. In addition, savings bonds and trophies are awarded to the first through fourth place winners in each division.
This year's Quiz Bowl competition was an overwhelming success with quality matches between teams from throughout Louisiana supported by an enthusiastic audience. A special thanks to our event co-sponsors Louisiana State University at Alexandria, The Rapides Foundation, and the City of Alexandria. Awards will be presented at a banquet to be held April 3, 2003 at Alexandria Convention Hall.
Click Here to view photos for the 10th Annual Quiz Bowl
"The Art of Storytelling"
"The Art of Storytelling: The Stories of Arna Bontemps, 1932-1998" was a literary residency presented by the museum to foster community multicultural appreciation of the art of storytelling. This program was designed to inspire others - youth and adults - to tell their own stories in their own words. The residency featured, Adella Gautier, of New Orleans, Louisiana. Ms. Gautier is simply known as "Adella Adella, the Storyteller". She is a storyteller, art educator and arts administrator with over 30 years of experience in the creative and performing arts. Adella Adella has toured regionally, nationally and internationally sharing her energy-charged performance style with audiences of all ages.
Click Here to view Storytelling photos
Jazz on the River
Jazz on the River, an annual museum event started in 1996, is Central Louisiana's premiere jazz concert featuring internationally recognized jazz "giants" and local talents. Past performers include Bill Grimes, Nicholas Payton, Ellis Marsalis, Kent Jordan, Maynard Batiste, Ed Perkins Quartet and the Mahogany Brass Band. This year's concert, which took place on April 20, 2002, featured saxophonist Quamon Fowler and trumpeter Maurice Brown. Fowler, a 2001 Panasonic Young Soloist, has played with such artists as Roy Hargrove and Wessell Anderson. Brown was recently nominated for a Grammy® for his work with Kirt Elling and has played with Oscar Peterson, Arturo Sandaval and BB King, among many others. Also performing at this year's concert was the Southern University Jazz Ensemble under the direction of legendary jazz clarinetist Alvin Batiste.
New to Jazz on the River this year was a Jazz Artist in Residence program. The inaugural jazz artist in residence was Alvin Batiste. Batiste rehearsed with musicians from Bolton, Tioga, Peabody Magnet, and Pineville high schools, who later performed onstage at Jazz on the River as a Big Band and with the Southern University Jazz Ensemble. Jazz on the River 2002 was supported by a grant from the Louisiana State Art Council through the Louisiana Division of the Arts, administered by the Arts Council of Central Louisiana, with major funding provided by The Rapides Foundation, CLECO and Bank One and supported by the City of Alexandria.
Click Here to view Jazz on the River photos
Arna Bontemps
Centennial Celebration
October 11-12, 2002
October 13, 2002 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Arna Bontemps. The occasion provided a timely opportunity to reexamine and to remind the world of the enormous contributions Bontemps made as a poet, novelist, historian, editor, librarian, children's book author, and literary mentor. The museum has geared up for a major, year-long celebration of Arna Bontemps' life, work and legacy that kicked-off in Alexandria on October 11 and 12. The kick-off event was at The Arna Bontemps Centennial Celebration Conference, which featured readings and discussions by renown Bontemps scholars and acclaimed contemporary authors who are following in the tradition of Bontemps. Additional celebration highlights included reminiscences by members of the Bontemps family. A screening of the Academy-Award nominated film, A Tuesday Morning Ride, based on Bontemps' best-loved short story, A Summer Tragedy was also shown. Another highlight was excerpts from St. Louis Woman, the musical Bontemps co-wrote with poet Countee Cullen that ran for 113 performances on Broadway in 1946 with Pearl Bailey in a starring role.
Arna Bontemps
Centennial Celebration Presents Ernest Hill
March 15-16, 2002
As part of the festivities leading to the kick-off of the Arna Bontemps Centennial Celebration in October, the museum presented acclaimed Louisiana novelist Ernest Hill in a two-day literary residency. The author of two gritty, but hopeful novels set in rural Louisiana, Satisfied with Nothin' and A Life for a Life, Hill is a writer working squarely in the tradition of Arna Bontemps and the Harlem Renaissance writers. Writers like Hill are carrying into the 21st century the African American literary tradition that Bontemps helped develop and extend for nearly fifty years as an active literary presence from the 1920s to 1970s. Hill is currently a writer-in-residence at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
During the residency, Hill met with students at Peabody Magnet and Alexandria Senior high schools and Louisiana State University at Alexandria to discuss the role that creative writers can play in exploring and informing social issues. Hill also led a workshop for aspiring young writers ages 13-18 at the museum. Members of the community were invited to meet Hill at a special public reading, reception and book signing, also held at the museum. These programs were made possible through a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Click Here to view Ernest Hill photos
Junior Writers Guild
The
Arna Bontemps Junior Writers Guild (JWG) was established in the fall of 1993 by
the Arna Bontemps Foundation.
This Guild is designed to promote an awareness and appreciation of
literature among young writers of the community through the literary legacy of
Arna Bontemps.
In
cooperation with the Rapides Parish Schools, students who exemplify a talent in
writing and an interest in literature and are in grades 6 – 12, are encouraged
to participate in the JWG. This
program is designed to complement the local school curriculum and teachers are
encouraged to use assignments given to the JWG in their classroom.
The
members of the JWG meet twice monthly on Saturdays at the Bontemps Museum from
10:00 A.M. to 12:00 Noon.
The objectives of this Guild are:
1)
To allow the literary legacy of Arna Bontemps to serve as a catalyst for
the creative potential of young writers.
2)
To guide young writers in developing their own creative writing talents
through the historic atmosphere of the Bontemps home.
3) To use the JWG as an avenue to publish works of young writers through the publication called Pencil Power.
In
the near future, this website will be posting upcoming programs that will
include writers who are younger than 6th grade and older than 12th
grade. Keep
checking this website for this information.
Click
here for more information
Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration
Of
freedom,
Of blessed security,
Of fresh, invigorating potential.
A
first step toward a new horizon,
A first taste of independence,
Gulped down as an intense swig of liberation,
Never nibbled with reluctance.,
Thousands
of square miles,
To affect millions of free people,
A
decision resolutely etched into history,
An excursion into mysterious lands,
The beginning of a tangible union,
The continuation of mutual dreams,
That
purchased a legacy.
Well said of the legacy of the Louisiana Purchase by Sarah Norman, a member of the Arna Bontemps Junior Writers Guild and a 10th grader at Bolton High School.
The
official kickoff for the state’s Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial 2003
Celebration was held on Friday, December 20, 2002.
The Arna Bontemps Museum and Cultural Arts Center was very happy to be a part
of such a momentous occasion.
The
Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration went hand and hand will the museum's
Arna Bontemps Centennial Celebration that
began during the week of October 13th which was Bontemps 100th
birthday.
The staff of the Bontemps Museum came up with a program that contained a spice of Christmas that continued the celebration of Arna Bontemps’ birthday and included the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration.
The
festivities were a part of the downtown events starting at 5:30 P.M. on Friday,
December 20th. The
museum had family activities such as:
African, Spanish, and Christmas music; storytelling from an excerpt from
The Pasteboard Bandit by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes entitled “Nine
Days Christmas” ; making of Christmas ornaments; and a beautiful setting to
take family pictures inside the museum for a nominal fee, Waldenbooks Fair was
set up for
those who wished to include Christmas shopping in their fun; and
refreshments of hot apple cider or punch with a Crème De Pirouline. Encore performances of those events occurred at 6:10 P.M.
and 6:50 P.M.
For
further information call 473-4692.