Hello, and welcome to a special edition of "Your South Florida."

I'm guest host Dejha Carrington and I'm the cofounder of Commissioner, an art membership program connecting emerging collectors and local artists.

Today, we're coming to you from The Historic Lyric Theater in Overtown.

Built in 1913, The Lyric is the oldest theater performance house in Miami.

It's owned and operated by The Black Archives, which is committed to preserving Miami's Black history and educating the public on its legacy.

In honor of Black History Month, today we're highlighting the artists preserving Black history and sharing powerful stories through their work, while shaping South Florida's arts community.

First up is the Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora or Miami MoCAAD.

Their latest exhibit currently housed here at The Black Archives is a groundbreaking project that merges art, technology and oral histories to honor the African diaspora and celebrate the soul of historic Overtown.

These murals create an immersive experience that bridges the past and present while fostering community pride.

Come take a look.

Miami MoCAAD started operationally in 2015 when it obtained a feasibility study from the Knight Foundation.

Their core mission is dedicated to the collection, the preservation and dissemination of art of the African diaspora.

We started knowing that we did not have a building and believed that technology could be used to enhance accessibility, but also we could leverage technology to present art in new, exciting and exhilarating ways.

We are in the lobby of the historic Black Archives Lyric Theater, and it has also provided gallery space for our traveling mural exhibition.

The Black Archives was founded by Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields to collect, preserve artifacts, history, photographs of Black Miami, which is really telling the story of Miami.

The Lyric is an iconic historic site that was a cornerstone of culture entertainment in Overtown back in the day when Overtown was a thriving business and cultural hub of Miami, and it was also known as the Black Harlem of Miami.

Our innovative spirit led us to place our murals in three places, in our website and now with our traveling mobile exhibition titled "Telling Overtown Stories, Saying Their Names."

Our curator, Donna Marie Baptist selected the artists.

Miami MoCAAD brings its view of what the theme should be.

We started this project with three murals, but we also incorporated QR codes as interactive technology that could bring the oral histories of Overtown to life.

They're not just paintings on a wall, they are paintings that speak.

They are paintings that say our names, the names of people who lived in Overtown, the names of people who preserved the history of Overtown.

This particular piece that I did was like something very special to me, because I live in this community and I always like seen this building.

A few of my friends' fathers are longshoremens.

A few of my friends who I grew up with are now longshoremens.

The longshoremens is people who are responsible for unloading cargo ships and bringing them into the city.

They also work for the cruise line too, where they take off luggage off of the cruise line.

80 something years ago like, nobody else wanted to do it.

A lot of African Americans and Bahamians like, would do these jobs.

And also they get paid a lot of money, but it's also dangerous.

Reginald talked with union members, he researched their photographs, he looked into their spirit and as a result, he was able to use his imagination to present their power, show us the underlying beauty and strength of longshoremen brotherhood.

There was that image of them inside of the Martin Luther King parade that they had, and they were all like walking together in unison.

I thought that that image in particular like, encompasses the unity that I kind of feel when I'm like, in their environment and the fact that all of them are like African American men and women.

It almost seemed like they're very, very militant, but they're just, you know, people of a lot of importance when it comes to the city.

Like, I come from Overtown and I know that our history and also our city and our belonging in this city is constantly being like, taken away from us.

I think that to try to honor and try to have some sort of like, preservation of our history was important to me.

I just know what they mean to our community and for me to get the opportunity to honor them was like, it's a dream come true.

It was easy to agree on a theme for the Lawson Thomas building.

Judge Lawson E. Thomas was Miami's first Black judge.

He was an ardent Civil Rights activist.

He participated as a lawyer and provided backup and leadership for the wade in that led to the opening of Virginia Key Beach as a segregated beach for Black people here in Miami.

It was up to the artists to use the inspiration from that history and from that knowledge and create a wonderful portrayal of intergenerational power, strength, hope, and struggle for the future.

When I made Overtown the Family Tree, the biggest thing that I thought about is what is a story that I want to tell after I'm gone, when it's like years and years later.

When people are walking past it, I want them to know what it's about.

And it's really the importance of understanding like, our family is important and then raising our children in order to know what is the next steps in order to make our our existence even better than it was or realizing how, you know, it was difficult and what can we do in order to change that.

What I hope people take away from this mural and all the murals in Overtown is the power of art.

The power of great art, meaningful art, colorful art and what it does to the community.

And when you take that, you have a paintbrush, you have a vision, and you have other people's intention and responsibility in your hands.

Like, then what do you do with that?

I believe that doing art like this in this area, the people that live in this area want to take care of it, and you see it every day.

When people came and engaged those QR codes, particularly at the Lawson E. Thomas building, it was an aha moment that we have this history that we didn't really know that much about.

And here, art and technology are bringing that history to us.

Miami MoCAAD wanted a soccer theme that would create an awareness of soccer players from the diaspora.

It was up to Stefan to use his imagination, use his artistic creativity, and present us with vibrant colors and bring us abstraction, merged with portraiture.

We had a couple meetings about what we thought we could do and the story came up about the Miami Edison Varsity soccer girls team and how they won the regional championships in South Florida.

And the more we started to talk about them, the more we came to realize that there were about five or six players on the team that were homeless.

So we really wanted to create something that was an honorarium to them.

As I started to divulge down the history of soccer in Overtown, there was one little Haiti soccer club that was the only prominent soccer club here in Overtown.

It really started a conversation for me as where does soccer come from and what does it mean to this community?

I chose Kylian Mbappe who plays for the French National team, and I chose Crystal Dunn who played for the American Women's National team.

I really wanted to segue the conversation we had before about the girl's varsity team and Miami Edison and create something that not only inspired them but spoke to their passion and dedication to the game.

He also allowed for placement of the soccer ball strategically because we wanted to make this mural, which is our newest mural, interactive in a different way.

And soccer lent itself to a game.

In art, if you're not engaging the technology aspect or the digital aspect of it, you're leaving a whole generation and a plethora of people to the wayside, and especially with the intent of paving the way for them to build on what we're doing.

I think it's truly incumbent on us as creatives to really start to think of how we're engaging the next generation.

I was so prideful that I was doing a mural in my community where my family grew up, where my dad was raised, and I've never felt the embrace of a community like this before.

I can't tell you how much pride I have in the artwork of the artists, their creative genius, and they are making true what our assumption was from the beginning, that there is enormous creative genius within the African diaspora, within the diaspora right here in Miami that justifies having Miami MoCAAD.

Anthony Burkes is a Florida based artist who was born with a passion for art, creating vibrant, intricate works that explore themes of culture, identity and the world around us.

His art captivates with its bold colors and thoughtful storytelling.

We stopped by the Bailey Contemporary Art Center in Pompano Beach to check out his latest exhibit.

Anthony shares his deep love for art, his creative process and his commitment to giving back to local artists.

These pieces are large, most of 'em are done in charcoal.

This one here has some pastel in there and all of my little tiny details, I come back with colored pencil with them to give 'em a little more life.

This series is called "Royalty Combs," And with that, it's that I'm by giving 'em their power by giving back their crown.

Artists, I tell people it's a gift.

It's always a mind thought moment for me.

I don't go a second without thinking about art.

I don't go a second without wanting to create something.

There's times I'm sitting at my desk on my computer and something will pop in my head, so I gotta run to the restroom to jot it down and then come back to work.

I don't know how to explain it to normal people.

I call 'em normal people, because I don't feel like I'm normal, because the art is my drive.

It keeps me up and everything, I feel that keeps me alive.

With my art, I always put my energy behind it.

I always try to express myself what I'm going through.

Sometimes you wouldn't know that a certain color or a certain stroke is probably I was in a bad mood or just going through some emotional things, but I had to express it in a different way that's not gonna harm anyone, you know, but still release it.

So my work is my therapy.

It keeps me up most of the nights, but in other days it gives me joy.

I think I've been drawing technically, that I can really pay attention to, when I was around three.

I decided to go to school for commercial art, because I used to just.

Anything I could do to create art, I wanted to do it.

And I end up at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, and from there I came out and worked for a sign company for 20 plus years and always had the urge to become a fine artist.

Always tried to find out, how does it work?

What does it take to be a fine artist?

It took some hard times for me to really embrace it and have the courage to jump off that cliff and become who I was put on this earth to do, and that is a fine artist.

So I've been creating for all my life, but professionally for the last 16 years, and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

These combs are based off of something I heard that in Africa a lot of the combs represented their tribes, represent their power.

I start putting images on top of the combs that needs to earn their power back.

If you look at these masks over here, these are masks I saw in Baltimore at a museum and I couldn't get very much information about them.

So basically, the comb is their throne and they are their kings and queens again.

And I would like to one day do a project that I can go to some of the museums and find out where did they get these masks from?

Who made these masks?

Do you know the real story behind these masks?

So, I can give them their stories back, give them everything they asked of when it was created.

This show is called "The Four Corners of My Mind."

And I do have another series of work on the other side here that's a lot different from what you're looking at here.

This is my color world.

Again, I got my scrubjay, which is my "Endangered Species" series.

I have my "Root of Ground" series.

I have my "Cry Freedom Root of Ground" series.

And then I have my "Red Root of Ground" series.

The ground series is basically bringing awareness to the animals, bringing awareness to us as an individual.

One of the series is called "Endangered Species of Florida."

I did nine animals and one of me, to show that I'm like these animals as a Black man.

We go through some of the same dangers, or the difference is I can speak my words and they can't.

I can express myself, but they can't.

Because with the animals.

And I have a series called "Cry of Freedom Rooted Ground," is that this animal is roaring, it's screaming out for help and we ignoring it.

I am those animals.

I am the strength of those of the bean.

And we need to find a way to keep them around, because again, once they're gone, who's next?

It's gonna be nothing but the trees.

I am a colored pencil artist.

Like if you look at the scrubjay, that's all-colored pencil other than the background.

When I do colored pencil, it's layers.

I do four or five different layers through a painting.

So, it mimics paint, but it's all colored pencil.

I start adding watercolor 'cause it works with my colored pencil.

The acrylic doesn't work very well with colored pencil.

I come back with my, I call it my abstract moment.

It add white acrylic paint, but it's normally at the end, 'cause I don't want it to affect me creating on top.

Being a colored pencil artist, after a while it takes a toll on your hands, and my fingers were started getting tight, so I couldn't do my full color colored pencil moment anymore.

So I had to find a way to still create the way I create, but soften it up on my fingers.

So I did pick up charcoal too.

My other series "Across a Way" is all charcoal mostly and colored pencil.

I want to tell these stories.

I want to tell their good and their bad through my expression.

And again, that's as an artist, we are a open diary to you.

You get to see all our pages.

I love standing behind people and hearing what they think of what I created, and it blows my mind away some of the stuff they say.

But at the end of the day, I'm like, all right, I think I nailed it.

Their story's a little different, but they kind of got it.

It's creating a conversation.

And that's what I want to be expressed in my art.

That isn't just me doing a pretty bird or doing a tree, that you understand my vision.

Understand where I was going when I created it.

With all of my females or I call 'em my queens, I ask them what their favorite color is and from there I find a moss or a butterfly to match.

So now it's just not me just creating a portrait, they're now part of the piece.

And the series is called "Natural Beauty."

They don't need any color to represent them.

They are beautiful in and out to me anyway.

But as for the butterfly, which is the nature part of it, they need their colors.

They need to be able to hunt or they need to be able to hide.

They need to show their ability to mate.

They need their colors to stand out for those purposes.

So they actually need their colors.

People ask me all the time, what is my favorite piece?

And I'm like, I don't have a favorite piece.

I'm not done yet.

I'm always really doing something or come up with a new series of things or going off of what's going on right now in today's time and find a way how I can implement it into my pieces.

And so, it's a whirlwind of different feelings.

I have a series that I created called "Power Is," and it was based off of Black Lives Matter.

My wife and I, we are curators too, so we asked through the Palm Beach Cultural Council to curate or showcase.

And it was around the time when the thing was really crazy and they wanted to have all Black artists in the showcase.

And I did a piece called "Mirror Black."

And what it was, is that the same person talking to yourself, one of 'em was very angry and the other one was very calm.

And I base it off of the blue pill and red pill.

And what part of a Black man are you focusing on?

Are you focusing on finding the answer, or you going to stay angry?

You need to find a way to kind of bring it in the middle or choose your battles.

Are you trying to find a solution or are you still want to hold on to the anger and not having the solution to how to solve this thing?

'Cause we all gotta live together at some point.

I use my struggle that I went through trying to become a fine artist and be an artist.

'Cause we are constantly being told that, you know, you know, you're going to starve.

There's no way you can survive being an artist.

And I just wanted to prove them wrong, 'cause this is my gift.

And who is anyone to tell me that I cannot do it for a living.

So, I can't take all the credit.

My wife, she's a strong part of my career.

She handles all the stuff that I don't have to handle or want to handle.

One thing that I do is when I sell a piece of artwork, I go back into my studio and I find an artist that I can support, because I got gifted.

So, who am me not to do the same.

So I'm always finding a way to just encourage the artists in my circle to understand the value of themselves and that you can make it in this crazy art world.

In West Palm Beach, Black history is observed year-round courtesy of a coalition of artists who've literally taken their work to the streets.

This group lives up to its name, Street Art Revolution.

Through their vibrant murals, these artists continue to transform public spaces into galleries of history, culture, and inspiration for all.

Our mission and our focus is to bring culturally relevant art and make it accessible to communities that are underserved.

The Power Street Art is the fact that it is in the public space, that people have access to it.

You know, it is a democratic form of art, and because of that it's extremely important.

We create things that move people, and that's our focus.

Things that have impact and connection to people.

When they look at the image, they feel something.

When we did Revolution of the Groove, we were talking about the social conditions that African Americans were facing when you look at blue's music.

It was done on the concept that the first line, the Civil Rights Movement is our music.

And so we profiled artists who had dramatic change within the society.

People like Aretha Franklin, "Respect," Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit."

It had a lot of impact on making people stop, look and be captured by the images in the mural.

People wanted to know more about the artists, those who didn't know.

And those who did came and told me who were their favorites, what a part of their music moved them.

We saw the social impact of that very quickly, how it moved people and how it was relevant.

And then also the fact that the artists that we selected, a lot of them had paid our local segregated club.

So it also had cultural relevancy to the local community.

It also had cultural relevancy, what was going on at the time, because still we were going through that upheaval from the George Floyd and all that anxiety.

The Civil Rights mural was done during the summer when George Floyd had passed away so tragically.

We were commissioned by the subcultural group with Rodney Mayo to do something positive about what was going on with how to fight social injustice in a positive way.

And of course the Civil Rights Movement was a movement where you basically brought massive social change to a society without any bloodshed.

Congressman Lewis was a part of the mural.

We had Augusta Savage, we had Ellen Baker, we had Fannie Lou Hamer, and of course Martin Luther King and Malcolm X that were profiled that mural.

The four core members, you know, it's nearly seamless how we work together.

It's like basically working with a family.

Eddie and Tony are just fantastic.

Anthony Hernandez is a wonderful artist.

He specializes in portraiture, he focuses on connection, that we're all connected.

He sees art as bringing people together, and he has a great love for the visual image.

Another member of the group is Eduardo Mendieta, and he has done a lot of different things over the years with us.

He helped develop the beautiful water tank you see in Revera Beach.

He also worked on the Civil Rights mural.

Dalhia Magnificent.

She's a renaissance woman.

She is a poet.

She is an artist.

A lot of my stuff is based on Black history and women's history, circa 1920 and prior, just because I love the glamour.

I love the pride in how people looked and how they carried themselves in a certain moral compass that people seem to have.

And those are things that I personally would like to aim towards.

I think that's the beauty of that era for me.

This is Caron's baby.

99.9% of the ideas and the concepts come through her, specifically through her.

And it's our job as artists to help her build those things out.

Street art for me is the voice of the people.

Art is used and sits in the center, specifically street art of every major historical moment in our past.

For me, it's not just about art for art's sake, it's about using art to speak about what you believe in, to beautify, to heal communities, and also for people to be able to express themselves.

We put beauty in spaces, and I think that's what we do.

The Under the Bridge mural profiled the history in Riviera Beach.

African Americans used to swim under the Singer Island Bridge there in the Intracoastal Waterway.

And it was because they were not necessarily welcomed at the municipal beach on Singer Island.

And that kind of speaks to that history.

This mural right now, though, but it also speaks to change.

This young African American boy who's swimming in the Intracoastal Waterway.

This mural now is the gateway to the municipal beach where everyone is welcome to participate and go swim.

So, it also speaks to the change where the mural is at.

Palm Beach Lakes High School wanted to basically inspire the young people there towards academic achievement by self-motivating them through art.

One of the murals we did first there was a beautiful mural profiling athletic achievement.

Another mural that we did at the school was a Martin Luther King mural that has quotes on it.

I feel a lot of our more successful murals has been based on what has been going on within the society.

And we have been able to reflect that and highlight that.

They also can give messages to the public that you may not find in a contemporary art gallery.

A lot of people feel intimidated when they go in there, you know.

Public art is free to the public to enjoy.

It's probably the most powerful form of art because it's in the public eye.

There's no constraint over it.

It's open and you can touch the lives of many people who come pass it.

For more on the artists on today's show, follow us on Facebook at YourSouthFL.

I'm Dejha Carrington.

Thanks for watching.