Project Unity Listen and Learn Speaker Series: Curtis King, cultural pioneer and visionary

(The Dallas Examiner) – Curtis King, founder of The Black Academy of Arts and Letters Inc., shared the story on Nov. 13 of the humble beginnings that led to the formation of the culturally rich home for the arts known popularly as TBAAL.

Born and raised in the small town of Coldwater, Mississippi, public schools were still segregated when King graduated high school in 1969.

Growing up, he developed a love of Black arts and culture, which led him to attend Jackson State University, an HBCU located in Mississippi. It was during his college years that he had the pivotal, life-changing experience of being mentored by Margaret Walker Alexander, author of the novel Jubilee and poetry collection For My People.

“I was just so moved by this woman that I’d read about and had studied in high school, and here I am standing here in her office,” King said, recalling the first time he met her.

The following year, Alexander was the keynote speaker for the Conference to Assess the State of Black Arts and Letters in the United States, a star-studded event held in Chicago in 1972. The conference was presented by the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. Known as BAAL, the organization was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1969. It became incorporated in New York City.

As Alexander’s mentee, King was invited to attend the conference alongside her.

“I was one of three students that she chose to go to Chicago, which was the first time that I was on a flight. And coming from the south, I’m going to Chicago, and I’m gonna meet all these famous people,” King said.

Surrounded by the likes of Ozzie Davis, Ruby Dee, Diahnn Carroll, Della Reese, Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte and Sydney Poitier, King was both star-struck and inspired. He took a proactive and assertive approach to being in the same room with such great actors and actresses.

“While all the rest of the students were running around getting autographs, I was getting everybody’s addresses and their phone numbers,” King said.

When King returned to Mississippi after the conference, he mailed letters to each of the artists whose contact information he was able to obtain, thanking them for taking the time to speak with him. He still has all of the response letters.

Out of the four graduate school fellowship offers that he received, King accepted the opportunity to attend Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Then came a chance encounter with two of the stars whom he had met in Chicago.

“When I got to Fort Worth, it was tugging at me – I wanted to be a fellow of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters. And then I found out when Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee came to TCU for a project, that the academy was not in existence anymore,” King said.

Davis and Dee planned to tell King the reason for the dissolution of BAAL, but he never had the chance to connect with them again.

In 1976, King had the opportunity to be a part of the Sojourner Truth National Cultural Arts Festival in Fort Worth. Many of the artists whom King had met in Chicago and written letters to were invited to the festival including Joe Nash, who at the time was overseeing the Black Dance Documentation Program.

“When he came to the festival to do one of the panels, he brought me four boxes of the original history of the formation of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters that had been found in a New York dumpster,” King said.

A custodian that was hired to clean out the closed offices of BAAL salvaged the boxes and handed them over to Nash, whose office was next door. Nash entrusted King with the boxes, advising him that within them were the original records and meeting minutes of the academy.

King continued his studies in Raleigh, North Carolina, New York City, and ultimately moved to Dallas to begin pursuing his PhD. The entire time that King traveled, he carried along those four boxes of history. Soon after, with just $250, King opened a bank account to establish TBAAL.

“Two-hundred fifty dollars to start an organization. A $255 million project that’s about to happen with our current venue in a 250,000-square-foot facility, which is spiritually mind-boggling for me,” King said, referencing the planned renovations of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

TBAAL was first named The Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters so as to not impede upon the name of the original organization. Members of the arts community convinced King to drop “Junior,” with the anticipation that TBAAL would have as much of an impact upon Black culture and arts as the original organization.

For King, it has been a long journey filled with many challenges, such as losing the original TBAAL venue that was located in east Dallas. For the following nine years, TBAAL did not have a location of its own. Local churches and community members supported and encouraged King to not give up since at the time, many Black cultural and arts organizations were dissolving.

“I just felt that God was pulling at me and tugging at me and saying this is something you have to keep doing. Because if our history is in a trash dumpster, what is it that our young people are going to have to be able to emulate what it is that they are able to do,” King said.

King carried the four boxes of history with him to each temporary location.

“Every time I got disgusted, I would put those boxes on the table and remind myself that the history of the Black Academy was salvaged out of a New York dumpster,” King said.

Community activists rallied around King and TBAAL, which led to a special agenda item that was presented to the Dallas City Council for a TBAAL location at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Seven council members including Diane Ragsdale, Elsie Faye Heggins, and Al Lipscomb, voted in favor of TBAAL moving into the space. Eight council members were not in favor.

“That was very discouraging because that meant that we still did not have a location. The community was upset,” King recalled.

The council placed the vote back on the agenda for a later meeting, and the votes flipped to eight in favor and seven against. Going forward, each time the building lease term neared expiration there was a majority vote in favor of a renewal.

Currently, rich history and cultural treasures fill the halls and galleries of TBAAL building. There is an ongoing schedule of shows, exhibitions and films that are open to the community. Each year, the organization hosts The Riverfront Jazz Festival during Labor Day weekend.

TBAAL also partners with Dallas ISD to provide students the opportunity to participate in a three-week summer arts program which concludes with live, student-led performances. This past summer was the 40-year anniversary of the program.

“I believe that if people in the arts share the cultural history of the lives of others, it lends a lot to how people become civil with each other,” King concluded. “And that’s why I think the arts are so important.”

For more information about scheduled events or to learn about TBAAL memberships and donating, visit https://www.tbaal.org. To listen to past recordings from the Project Unity Listen and Learn Speaker Series, visit https://www.projectunity.net.

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