March is Women’s History Month. We may only have one week left, but SoFlo is definitely not done celebrating. There’s a special series happening at one of our local landmarks that’s honoring the women who helped shape our community.

Brittany Graham’s got a voice, and she’s not afraid to use it to tell the story of South Florida historian and founder of the Black Archives, Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields.

Brittany Graham: “It’s really a special time, and you can tell how special it is to everyone that’s involved.” Brittany is one of three soloists performing in “Through the Storm: Women Walking in Greatness.”

“Through the Storm: Women Walking in Greatness” highlights influential women who transformed the landscape of South Florida. Kunya Rowley, Amanda Crider and Rebecca Peterson from Hued Songs’ Artistic Director, Illumin Arts’ Artistic Director and Vizcaya's Community Programs Manager, respectively, joined Inside South Florida to share how the production brings these characters' historical contributions to life.

“When a baby comes to the workshop – from Liberty City, Overtown, Miami Gardens, Richmond Heights – and they are comfortable putting that pen in their hand and writing in their voice about what they see on a day-to-day basis, that’s the part that I care about,” said In YOUnison collaborating artist Arsimmer McCoy.

She’s talking about her experience in this year’s monthlong summer program organized by Vizcaya Museum & Gardens and IlluminArts, for people of all ages to create art in different mediums, together.

Free community workshops were held throughout this month that culminated with a final community performance June 24.

Vizcaya is a work of art, and it’s home to an art event called In YOUnison. We’re gonna see how it lets guests get their creativity on and be one with the community.

Summer 2022 is about to get artsy. At Vizcaya, guests can take part in interactive workshops hosted by local artists.

Rebecca Peterson: “In YOUnison is the 2022 installation of Vizcaya’s annual participatory public art program. We commission a bunch of artists to come and envision a work here at Vizcaya, and then we invite the community in to work with those artists.” This year, you could work alongside three different artists and learn some new skills. Rebecca Peterson: “The whole point, really, is to give people time to be together and be creative, and that’s what you can expect at the workshops.”

La reconocida cantante mezzosoprano Amanda Crider, fundó IlluminArts en 2013 para presentar al público de Miami actuaciones de música clásica de clase mundial, pero con un toque diferente.

La más reciente, titulada “To Reach the Light” (“Para Alcanzar la Luz”, en español), combina ocho nuevas obras vocales encargadas en 2020 a los compositores contemporáneos Evelin Seppar, Carla Kihlstedt, Elliot Cole, Jenny Olivia Johnson, David Shapiro y el compositor residente en Miami, Shawn Crouch. La oferta se redondea con pinturas contemporáneas de vanguardia de Sterling Ruby y esculturas de Kennedy Yanko.

No todos se atreven con Villa Vizcaya, oasis miamense, insólito castillo sobre la bahia. Pero, después de la noche de Halloween 2021, para quienes se atrevieron a Otra vuelta de tuerca de Benjamin Britten, Vizcaya ya no volverá a ser la misma…Quien en primera instancia se atrevió fue Amanda Crider, creadora de Illuminarts, que en su inaugural producción de una ópera completa se anota su mejor trabajo hasta la fecha. 

Seven years ago, Miami-based mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider settled in to enjoy a chamber music program in Washington, D.C., that featured art song (poetry set to music) – a genre of music she adores – when something unusual happened.

How do you stay connected to the people and issues you care about during the pandemic? We heard from a group of community organizers, leaders of civic organizations and business owners about the steps they’re taking to remain connected.

“Turn of the Screw: A new, site-specific, multimedia community collaboration:” IlluminArts, in conjunction with Nu Deco Ensemble and the National YoungArts Foundation, will present a new production of Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera, “The Turn of the Screw,” inspired by and performed at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens

Photographer Terence Price II grew up at his grandparents' house in Miami Gardens. He was given his first film camera as a teen, and has been capturing the lives of people in his neighborhood ever since.

Whether they're awkward or graceful distortions, all the photographs produce the unsettling desire to see what we simply can't — a portrait of the artist. Amanda Crider, artistic director of IlluminArts, found the series particularly compelling as she investigated Mendieta for IlluminArts' 18th program of classical music arranged in response to visual artists' work.

The audience attending “the little match girl passion” sat on mats on the broad staircase or in the upper echelon seats in the elegant auditorium at the Perez Art Museum Miami. The two sections are divided by a stage in between, so where people chose to sit would determine how they watched–and experienced–this experimental opera.