Creative Pinellas interviews PDAP
Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project Builds Community Through All the Arts
Tampa Bay Afrofuturism Festival
November 3-19
St Pete, Clearwater
Tampa, Largo
Details here
I shared a conversation with creative members of the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project, a Black and Brown organization in St. Petersburg who come to serve the neighborhoods with art, love and healing in mind.
This weekend begins the 2023 Tampa Bay Afrofuturism Festival, hosted by PDAP and exploring the theme of BRIDGES – Future/Present, Future/Past through three weekends of visual art, dance, music, math and tech, digital arts, theater and film. You can find the schedule here.
The Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project’s mission is “to support, encourage, and promote Black and Brown Arts and Artists in Tampa Bay while providing family engagements with a focus on health and wellness. Our vision is to build a community of Black and Brown creative producers, artists, and artivists, focused on developing and inspiring educational, collaborative and uplifting engagements for youth and families that encourage health and wellness.”
I spoke with PDAP board members Jake-ann Jones, Debbie Yati Garrett and Maranda Douglas.
I’ve witnessed many instances of discrimination in my life, including against myself and my best friend Aisha when we were in high school. We both are mixed, but I have indigenous Filipino (Ita/Aeta) blood from my mother’s side, and she is a beautiful Black woman. Being different was never easy, and it certainly was a struggle for everyone who came from very different backgrounds to feel loved and accepted back where we are from.
This transcript has been edited for readability.
Is the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project in a fixed area in St. Pete, or is it more of a mobile thing?
Jake-ann Jones – Well, Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project is currently made up of eight board members. I live in Clearwater. Debbie lives in St. Pete. Artz 4 Life, run by our board VP Jai Hinson is in Clearwater. Bob Devin Jones, the president, lives in St. Pete. Jabaar Edmond, Tressalyn Morris and Eunice Park, our other board members, live in St. Pete. Maranda’s in upper Pinellas as well. We’re spread out all over the place.
What kinds of activities does PDAP host in the Black and Brown community?
Debbie Yati Garrett – Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project is also known as PDAP. We do have an active website and the website is a great tool if you want to see what programs and events we’ve done.
The most recent event that we put on was a Chalk Festival that was held in a historical Black area in St. Petersburg (The Deuces, in May).
Does PDAP tend to host activities in a certain way or is it more like – “If it’s art. We’ll do it. Whether it’s music or talking, it doesn’t matter what form it is, it’s just doing the work of art.”
Debbie Yati Garrett – Well, one of our mission statements is to elevate art, Black culture. And we are the result of the mission statement. We stay true to that.
Jake-ann Jones – We do art. The art encompasses all the traditional arts that we know. But it also can include carpentry as a form of artistry.
I look at art in a kind of a holistic way. Everybody probably comes with their own definition. We also do pop-up events. We’ve done movie nights, we’ve done conversations. And then Maranda does events for us in Clearwater.
To read more visit: https://creativepinellas.org/magazine/exploring-afrofuturism-this-month/
