In conjunction with Deep Ellum’s 150th anniversary, the African American Museum of Dallas will debut two exhibitions — curated by Alan Govenar — and host a Family Community Day on opening day to commemorate the enduring significance of Deep Ellum and Central Track.
The two exhibitions illuminate Central Track, which connected to Deep Ellum and was once a thriving African American community whose roots date back to the Civil War. Central Track was demolished in the 1940s to make way for North Central Expressway and the I-345 overpass.
In conjunction with the exhibition debuts, the Family Community Day, which also marks 30 years since the museum opened at Fair Park, will be held Saturday, Nov. 11.
Alan Govenar will be present to discuss and sign his books.
About the exhibitions
Central Track: Crossroads of Deep Ellum focuses primarily on the 1920s and 1930s and features newspaper clippings, archival photographs, posters, and recordings of blues, jazz, and popular music of the period.
Seeing a World Blind Lemon Never Saw presents a photographic series made by Alan Govenar from 2021-2023, exploring rural East Texas and little-known places in Dallas, locations Blind Lemon visited or alluded to in his songs.
Central Track: Crossroads of Deep Ellum and Seeing a World Blind Lemon Never Saw are the fourth and fifth of five exhibitions created and launched by Documentary Arts founder Alan Govenar to honor Deep Ellum’s century-and-a-half milestone. The three other exhibitions currently on view are When You Go Down In Deep Ellum and Unlikely Blues: Louis Paeth and Blind Lemon Jefferson at the newly opened Deep Ellum Community Center (2528 Elm St. A in Dallas) and Invisible Deep Ellum, a public art installation under the I-345 overpass.
Free and open to the public, the exhibitions open Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, and run through May 30, 2024, at the African American Museum, Dallas in historic Fair Park (3536 Grand Ave, Dallas, TX 75210).
About Alan Govenar
Alan Govenar is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, photographer, and filmmaker. He is director of Documentary Arts, a non-profit organization he founded in 1985 to advance essential perspectives on historical issues and diverse cultures. Govenar is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of more than thirty-five books, including Boccaccio in the Berkshires, Paradise in the Smallest Thing, Stoney Knows How: Life as a Tattoo Artist, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Untold Glory, Texas Blues, Stompin’ at the Savoy, Everyday Music, Texas in Paris, Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper’s Daughter, A Pillow on the Ocean of Time, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean: The World and Music of Blind Lemon Jefferson (coauthored with Kip Lornell), and Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where Cultures Converged (coauthored with Jay Brakefield). Govenar’s film Stoney Knows How was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and was an Outstanding Film of the Year at the London Film Festival. Govenar has also produced and directed numerous films in association with NOVA, PBS and ARTE. His feature-length documentaries Looking for Home, Myth of a Colorblind France, Extraordinary Ordinary People, Tattoo Uprising, The Beat Hotel, Master Qi and the Monkey King, and You Don’t Need Feet to Dance are distributed by First Run Features.