The renowned arts focused Betsy Hotel is pleased to announce back by popular demand, Legacy Pianist Danny Mixon as an Artist in Residence at The Betsy Writers Room, now celebrating its 10th anniversary of hosting creatives working in a wide range of disciplines from poetry, journalism, music and the visual arts. During his residency he will be performing at The Betsy’s 11th Annual Overture to Overtown Jazz Festival celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month (April) and Jazz Day (April 30).
Danny Mixon is one of several headliners performing as part of the Betsy’s 11th annual Overture to Overtown Jazz festival honoring the legacy of Overtown as Miami’s historic jazz mecca and with that in mind, the Betsy’s robust lineup inside the Hotel will be augmented by curating and co-presenting events in Overtown, in the Miami Dade County Public Schools, at area colleges, and with the Ocean Drive Association in Lummus Park. The Betsy’s 11th Annual Overture to Overtown Jazz Festival is co-produced by legacy jazz vocalist and businesswoman Carole Ann Taylor and Deborah Briggs, Betsy VP of Arts and Community Engagement.
The Betsy’s Annual Overture to Overtown Jazz Festival (OTO) celebrates the historic connections between South Florida jazz and the National historic jazz circuit which brought musicians who played in NYC’s Harlem to The Harlem of the South (AKA Overtown) as they made their way from club to club – across the USA. In Overtown, stars like Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, and Josephine Baker not only performed but also spent the night because of segregation laws in Miami and Miami Beach. Unable to stay the night after a gig, they went “over town” to their hotels and stayed in hotels that were owned and operated by Black proprietors. The talents of so many cultural ‘greats’ fostered such world-class entertainment venues in Overtown as the Lyric Theater, Knight Beat, and other clubs. Over the years, distinguished African American intellectuals also stayed there, including W.E.B. Dubois, author Zora Neale Hurston, and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X frequented the area and so did Muhammed Ali, as did so many other great African American voices.
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