Graphic by Owensboro Times
The second annual Through Sleet’s Eyes Festival will be held this Friday. This year, organizers are incorporating Moneta Sleet Jr.’s love for jazz music into the event, including local poets and New York City-based group Jason Tiemann Trio.
The event will begin at 2 p.m. at the RiverPark Center, with the gallery exhibit showcasing different moments from the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The documentary, “A Fine Remembrance,” will be shown at 4 p.m. Both portions of the event are free to the public.
Emmy Woosley, chair of the event, said that this year they wanted to expand the attractions with a ticketed event centered around jazz starting at 7 p.m.
She said the idea came both from Sleet’s love for jazz and the importance that jazz played in the Civil Rights Movement. After Sleet lived in Owensboro, he went to New York City,.
The Jason Tiemann Trio is led by Tiemann, one of the most in-demand jazz drummers in NYC. They are influenced by jazz legends, including Philly Joe Jones and Elvin Jones. Local poets include Kali Speaks and Cocoa Flow, who have written poems to accompany Sleet’s work.
“We combine award-winning national jazz musicians with some incredible local performers this year. This combination of jazz, spoken word, and collaborative visual art creates a truly unique evening and brings together a variety of people,” Woosley said.
In addition to the jazz performances, Woosley said that Mary-Katherine Maddox will also be doing a live art display with the city’s passions and hopes for the future.
Woosley teased that they will announce the future for the newly renovated Moneta Sleet Jr. Park during the event Friday.
The 7 p.m. dinner is a ticketed event for $20 each. Tickets are on sale here, or through the RiverPark Center Box Office at 270-687-2770.
Sleet made history with his Pulitzer Prize win in Photojournalism in 1969; he was the first Black person to win the award in journalism. Sleet was born in Owensboro in 1926 and attended Western High School, the segregated school for Black students.
Sleet went on to work for “Amsterdam News,” “Our World Magazine,” and eventually “Ebony” and “Jet” magazines in 1955. That led to him photographing countries throughout the globe and eventually working closely with Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
While working with King, Sleet documented much of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s and even King’s funeral, which resulted in Sleet’s monumental Pulitzer win.
