The arts should be for everyone in Miami — it’s a sentiment Marshall Davis Sr. believed so strongly that he has devoted his life to it.
Marshall has been the director of the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center for 40 years. Located at the heart of Liberty City, the center is just blocks from where he grew up and went to high school.
Here, Marshall built a place where children and teens could receive the highest quality education and exposure to all forms of the arts — think dance, drama, music, singing, the performance and visual arts.
He helped build a space that became a cultural greenhouse for talent like Tarell Alvin McCraney, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning movie Moonlight.
His own children, all of whom played an instrument, shared their father's affinity for the arts. His son Marshall Jr., for example, became one of the leading tap dancers in the world.
The center is poised for renovation so that it can continue Marshall’s vision of a culturally rich community.
Marshall has been honored for his work, including a grant from the Knight Foundation, which called him one of its Knight Arts Champions.
On the July 6 episode of Sundial, Davis joined us to talk about developing this cultural arts hub in the community.
On Sundial's previous episode, Helado Negro sat down with Sundial producer Elisa Baena to talk about his relationship to movement, performance and South Florida's landscape.
Listen to Sundial Monday through Thursday on WLRN, 91.3 FM, live at 1 p.m., rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Missed a show? Find every episode of Sundial on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.
