joining us to talk more about an event designed to get you off the beach in exploring alternative Arts venues Dr Willie Logan president and CEO of 10 North group and B car M curator of the city of opal's art of transformation installations and Street party gentlemen welcome thank you glad to be here for having us absolutely we got we have a lot to go over here because you have an event during the week and I also want to talk about all a lot of things that are happening in the city so Dr Logan uh first for you what what is your vision for the city of opaka uh when it comes to the ARs and why is the city so dear to you well I think the vision for the city of opak is similar to the vision of any City or any neighborhood and that is you want a community that has access to the best of everything in life and so whether it's food whether it's art um whether it's education um recreational activities Etc we believe that art is transformative um and art not only tells stories but um it reminds us of times of the past but it also lays out a framework for the future and it gives us an opportunity to share the experiences of um people from various walks of life and it also brings people together and it serves quite frankly as a catalyst um for interaction and for understanding and so with that what how have you seen that um impact the cities thus far in a very positive way I I I think when you mention the word opalak now people don't think of something negative they think of a city that has unique architecture a city um that's growing um a city um where people want to come visit and and we believe that um very soon people want to live there um from all walks of life and not just folks who see it as a second choice community and and so we're very excited that um bringing art as a way of attracting folks a way of giving folks understanding and a way of entertaining people and bringing people from different walks of like together is very very important for any community in any neighborhood to prosper and for people to have understanding and empathy for each other absolutely that I I totally agree with that and so uh Dr Logan mentioned the art of transformation and as you know so Baba car if you can tell us a little bit I know I've visited and I've I've been around it so I know that the the whole exhibit the whole time that you all have there is around the African art and the AFC the full African diaspora so maybe if you can tell us a little bit more about that right yeah absolutely I think that uh both the uh series of exhibitions and the uh programs and the relationship to the neighborhood um as Dr Logan was just uh mentioning is is important the this year is very unique in the sense that it is a gathering of four different exhibitions within uh the the campus so um titled the global Africa Africa Global um where the curatorial team which is overseeing these exhibitions is composed of a variety of people not only from the African diaspora but also of European descent into exploring um the global nature of uh Black Culture through exhibition through um a garden of sculpture with 6.5 uh fet um uh sculptures uh from Africa and the Caribbean and to bring these curators from around the world black curators to appala uh for example we have t mosaka who was the creator of the BNL of Johannesburg uh Professor yakoba konate who is the chair of the Department of art history at the University of Aban and who is who was was also the creator of the aost pavion at the last Venice BNL uh Philip Thomas is from the adnam School of Art uh Abdullah konate is a major African contemporary artist who is also a curator who is going to Cate so each of these curators works on a particular team too masaka is going to look at the fragmentation of identity through migration uh uh and particular element in this is the invited country so last year for example you we were pleased to see you we invited Haiti uh so this year we are exploring Puerto Rico and these are uh separate unique uh Pavilion in which the full presentation of that country we invited could be uh explore with curators from that uh country Abel uh Ramos is from the University of Madrid but Puerto Rican who will be doing the uh exhibition on Puerto Rico the experience of uh both Island and diaspora those Dynamics so in terms of teams in terms of the scholarship that was brought into this from around the African diaspora provide us with an opportunity to present uh a unique P perspective on African and African diaspora people not only from the US and Africa but from a Global Perspective so for example for the the um unveiling of This Magnificent sculpture made in Cuba uh conceived in Cuba which is almost a ton of in bronze which is imag the goddess of the sea but in a in a contemporary articulation so there are so many um layers in this year art of transformation which perhaps for the first time we are able now to bring all the component of the global Africa into one campus into four sites but walkable across each other that sounds amazing like I'm I'm you just talking about it has me hyped to go to go and be a part of it it is uh I well quickly maybe you mentioned it being the global Africa and maybe talk about uh either one of you why is it important to have that not only in opaka but like during this week of araza when when this is an International Festival why is it important to have that uh happening at this moment it's important that it's happening in opaka um because opaka is a majority African-American Community um it's located off the beat of where most of the artist um or culture activities in Miami day County take place and we think that every neighborhood every Community every residents need within walking distance or a short ride um access to um the type of programming in other words to engage with these artists to understand their stories the type of entertainment so whether it's dance spoken word music and the visual art whether sculptures or paintings Etc should have access to it and and and and they should have access to it within their neighborhoods we also recognize that that um once you bring culture and art and entertainment property values the interest of people living there the interest of people having businesses and working there um is is is is is multiplied by many times and and and that's evident and we can just see that throughout um Miami day County if not throughout the world I think also what makes us unique is that the increase in property value the increase in wealth the increase in income opportunities Once a community takes off um is important to the residents that are there and so our goal through this Auto transformation is not to is to transform the community by adding additional people additional activities additional Services additional programming but not displacing the people who are currently there which is I think you know is always important right because as those property values you know increase what happens to the people that live there we think that Scholars young kids um Young Artists aspiring artists um entrepreneurs alike um should um have access to these things and and so all of our programming is free we we we always um insist or require or invite the artists to to be in to do um to interact with the community we we we um we when our basil leaves our Art stays up you know for a couple more months because we're not doing it just for international crowd or our buyers we're doing it for um the people who are here and and then we share it with the folks who are visiting and so we we're very excited we we we believe that we have the most important collection of African and African diaspora art contemporary art or art and and we go back and forth was contemporary because as you know everything was contemporary at its time absolutely and and so we think our collection is is is significantly important um not only to this community but but to um the United States and Americas in general because of the fact that it is so Global in nature and it's so representative of the diaspora that we are excited and and barar cart and I Dr m and I um quite frankly are the elders you know you we we we reach out and we work with the curators we work with the artists we we work with the the program folks we we serve as advisers I I say he's our Grio often folks refer to me G in the sense that we're there um to to serve as a foundation support inspiration and to open doors and provide access to those who um will be be the next um leaders within our community so whether it's the managers of um a CER whether it's the curator whether it's the artist or whether it's the person who's building the frames or the person who's actually I'm setting things up or whatever the case may be working in the behind the scene we think it's important that we Empower folks in our community in this space in this industry and that's really the role that two of us play Dr Ile Dr Logan thank you so much for joining us and I look forward to seeing you all down at the art of transformation thank you for Hing us