Overtown Music Project Celebrates Rich Music History of Overtown with 2nd Annual Gospel Brunch

May 8, 2012 - PRLog -- The Overtown Music Project(OMP) will host its 2nd Annual Overtown Music Project Gospel Brunch on Saturday, May 19th, 2012 at Bethel A.M. E. Church in Overtown. The Overtown Music Project is a non-profit organization that continues to celebrate and bring awareness to the music, history and spirit of Overtown in its heyday. Known worldwide as the epicenter of Black culture, Overtown’s contribution to American music and all the arts is legendary. The event will begin at 11:15 am and will include  showcase a gospel choir, musicians from the heyday of Overtown. Brunch provided by Yardbird, Jackson Soul Food, Aaron Gougis' red velvet waffles and the best sweet potato pie from Ms. Vivian Dunn. Event organizers anticipate over 350 people attendees  including a host committee of 100 of Miami's most diverse community leaders.

Overtown once rocked with the sounds and soul of legendary  musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie in addition to the local based sounds of Bobby Stringer, Tree Top. They all performed in  venues like the, Sir John, the Mary Elizabeth Hotel, the Rockland Palace National acts or marquee musicians came "over town" and played for integrated audiences after performing for white audiences at places like the Eden Roc and Fontainebleau. Jim Crow laws forbade black artists from dining or staying overnight at Miami Beach hotels.

“History, music and food are the stars of Overtown Music Project's 2nd Annual Gospel Brunch at Bethel A.M.E.  We're so excited to once again showcase the musicians who played in Overtown decades ago in one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in Overtown”.


History of Overtown and OMP
The Overtown Music Project is non -profit organization that celebrates the music, history and spirit of Overtown in its heyday. Once recognized as the epicenter of music in Miami, a place where Thurgood Marshall vacationed and Langston Hughes wrote poetry, Overtown is now
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considered by most of Miami as a dangerous and blighted area with more vacant lots than buildings. Few people seem to remember its heyday as “the Harlem of the South” when dozens of nightclubs dotted the streets and hosted marquee acts like Count Basie and Dizzy Gillespie.In the time before desegregation and before the highways burst into Overtown dealing the deathblow  to the economy, African Americans thrived in Overtown. However, despite its proximity to Miami and hotspots like South Beach, Overtown is a shadow of its former self. All of the clubs, hotels and commercial centers that lined Overtown’s bustling streets have been demolished.
The Overtown Music Project intends to return the music to Overtown permanently and bring back some of the area's historic luster with a music mentoring program with University of Miami's Frost School of Music that will bring jazz, blues and the history of Overtown's music to children in Overtown.  The project will provides free, quality music instruction, ensemble playing and music mentoring for at-risk youth. This cutting-edge after school program will be taught by college and graduate level music students, music scholars, former Overtown performers and contemporary hip hop musicians.  

Please visit www.overtownmusicproject.org and follow on Twitter @OMPCelebrates.