The Ritz Theatre and Museum in LaVilla will present a new traveling exhibition, “Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities through Language,” organized by the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C.
The exhibit opens Thursday and will be on display through Dec. 31.
The collection includes audio recordings, photographs and artifacts from Turner’s research in the 1930s confirming that
people of African heritage retained and passed on their cultural identity through words, music and story in the
Gullah/Geechee community throughout South Carolina and Georgia.
Turner’s work produced a living treasury of previously unknown traditions, songs, and folkways that also uncovered and illuminated the connections with West African and Afro-Brazilian communities.
An opening reception is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free.
For more information about the exhibition and the museum’s permanent collection, visit ritzjacksonville.com.