Norman Jordan, Theresa Burriss and Ken Hechler at the Cultural Center 2008

On Saturday, February 21, 2009, at 7 pm the West Virginia Division of Culture and History will once again present an African American Arts and Heritage Academy Showcase at the Cultural Center. The program will feature faculty and student presentations in the areas of vocal and instrumental music, theater arts, literature and creative writing, dance, culture and history, visual arts, video and studio recording.  A professional video producer has created a fantastic video using higlights he shot at the 2008 African American Arts and Heritage academy.  The video will be shown during the showcase.

Norman Jordan is the leading African-American poet of West Virginia. I have written about him several times before. One story was about the 2008 event similar to this one. Another story was about Prof. Theresa Burriss’ article about Jordan that hopefully will finally be published in “Pluck” magazine, the official magazine about Affrilachian artists.Last year Norman moved his amazing photography collection from his family museum in Ansted to Malden. Be sure to drop in and see it if you are in the neighborhood. Here is a posted audio interview with Norman and his new book of poetry, “Where Do People in Dreams Come From and other poems.”

I worked with Norman for many years at the Cultural Center. He was the subject of a very interesting film, “Dead Ends, New Dreams,”  about his days in Cleveland as a leading poet there.

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