A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

Honoring National Women's History Month

Running for president isn't the only way to make history. The National Women's History Project [1] made that point when, for this year's National Women's History Month (March), they singled out women artists for our attention and appreciation. They named 12 women artists [2] as this year's honorees, saying:

The history of women and art is quintessential women's history. It is the story of amazing women's accomplishments acclaimed at the time but written out of history. … women's visual arts in a variety of forms and mediums … help expand our perceptions of ourselves and each other.

http://www.nwhp.org/whm/index.php [3]

Art and politics, women and history -- they come together and illuminate each other in many ways. In this election year, when things haven't gone all that smoothly so far for Florida voters, we'd like to highlight a community art project coordinated by artist Lynn Tomlinson of Winter Park, Florida. It tells an important story about Florida election activists and voting rights -- back in 1887. In commemorating that history, the project also represents a new page in Central Florida's history. This work deserves our attention because of the progressive politics of possibiltiies it represents, and because it's an eloquent expression of public art.

The project we're talking about is the "Community Pride in Hannibal Square Mosaic," completed and unveiled in February, 2007. A glorious pictorial mosaic work, it commemorates the heroic actions of black Floridians who took a stand in 1887, providing a model perhaps for the better known voting rights activism that would come 78 years later to Selma, Alabama. The historical context is that Hannibal Square at that time was home primarily to black working families employed by the influx of wealthy white settlers who were coming then to Central Florida.

In other words, these determined citizens crossed from "the wrong side of the tracks," after a "curfew," in order to go to their polling place and exercise their right to vote. Because of that brave act, two black aldermen were seated on the town council, and the "separate" black town of Hannibal Square became incorporated into the previously "white" town of Winter Park. How's that for making history some 120 years ago?

The Community Mosaic project directed by Tomlinson taught and honored that remarkable black voting rights history while working to create the commemorative mosaic. Local historian and resident Fairolyn Livingston shared advice and historical details throughout. In the cross-disciplinary mural program, students from three area elementary schools used what they learned about the history of the community to design the mural. Students, children, and seniors from the Winter Park Community Center's art programs, together with Crealdé School of Arts artists and volunteers, labored six months to make the thousands of pieces of tile needed to create the 10 feet by 18 feet mural. By the time it was completed, over 500 participants had leant their hands, hearts and minds to the community project.

And there's more. Other recent community initiatives in Hannibal Square are likewise helping to preserve the area's history and rejuvenate valuable community resources. A project of Crealdé's Hannibal Square Heritage Center [5] is preserving oral histories of the neighborhood, and the Center has created an archive of historic photos, as well. The Community Center in Shady Park, where the mosaic is located, has been rejuvenated.

As Tomlinson sees it, "The community in Hannibal Square is striving to preserve itself in an era when gentrification threatens to change the character of the neighborhood. The mosaic not only represents a story about voting rights and the history of the neighborhood, it also sends a message about the present struggles of the residents to preserve minority self-determination about the way their neighborhood will be in the future."

This community made a commitment to work together to honor the past. Their lasting achievements will remain for future generations in Hannibal Square and all of Winter Park.

Of course, the 21st century has thrown some challenges out to Florida's voters -- both black and white, young and old, rich and poor, male and female. There were those terrible hanging chads and "felons lists," and now the uncertainty that comes from the maneuvers of politicians who've monkeyed with the Florida primary. Some Floridians are feeling more than a little demoralized.

All the more reason to look to history for some inspiration. And to art.

This Central Florida community has shown their will, and will find a way. Voters in the nineteenth century showed courage in overcoming the obstacles of their time. Today's Floridians, working together, will, too.

http://communitymosaic.blogspot.com/ [6]

YouTube - Sam's Hannibal Square Mosaic Oration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ7Jm2Dljgo [7]

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