Lemon City Cemetery Memorial Garden And Monument Dedication Presentation
February 15, 2011, 9:30 AM
Village Carver
485 NW 71st Street
Miami, FL 33150

A dedication ceremony for the memorial garden and monument at the site of the recently discovered Lemon City Cemetery, where 523 Black people are buried many of who were Bahamian and early founders of Miami. The event will begin with a procession at 9:30 am led by The Progressive Cornet Band directed by Donnie Brown and the Singing Angels directed by Dr. Richard Strachan. At 10 a.m., Dr. Enid Pinkney, chair of the Lemon City Cemetery Community Corporation, and Alfred Sanchez, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Miami, will speak on the rich history of the Lemon City Cemetery and their work to preserve the memory of many of Miami’s Black pioneers

In April of 2008 human bones were discovered at the construction site for the YMCA of Greater Miami’s affordable housing project in Miami, Florida. It was found that these bones were from Black people, many of whom were Bahamians, and early founders of Miami.

The City of Miami had no record of a Cemetery being in this location and had given the Developers, Carlisle Development Group and Biscayne Housing, permission to build affordable housing on the land. The controversy resulted in the formation of the Lemon City Cemetery Community Corporation to stop further development of the property and ensure respect for the dead. The Y and the Developers agreed to revise their construction plans and not move the remains to another cemetery. They further agreed to turn the rest of the cemetery which had no construction on it into a memorial garden with a monument to the 523 people buried there and build the additional two planned apartments in another area of the Y’s property.

On February 16, 2010 the Lemon City Cemetery Community Corporation, the Developers and the Y celebrated the Local Historic Designation of the Cemetery which was granted by the City of Miami’s Historic Preservation and Environment Board on November 3, 2009. Over two hundred people attended the program. The Lemon City Cemetery Corporation has applied for a 501c3, sponsored a Charrette to determine plans for the Memorial and Monument and meets on a regular basis to achieve its goals.

The YMCA of Greater Miami
With branches throughout Miami-Dade and upper Monroe County, the YMCA of Greater of Miami is one of South Florida’s leading not-for-profit organizations. The Y engages the South Florida community to nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nation’s health and well-being, and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors. Focusing on strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the Y offers services such as youth sports, aquatics, after-school, preschool and child care, summer camp, health and fitness programs, and membership. For more information about the YMCA of Greater Miami, call toll free 1-877-WOW-YMCA or visit www.ymcamiami.org.

Lemon City Cemetery Community Corporation
The Lemon City Cemetery Community Corporation started out as the African American Committee of Dade Heritage Trust, which later became the Lemon City Cemetery Task Force and now has been incorporated. The first meeting was held on May 25, 2009 at Jefferson Reaves Park to discuss strategies to deal with the discovery of the Lemon City Cemetery. Finding family members of the deceased, applying for historic designation, inviting elected officials to our meeting and getting the community involved were strategies suggested to deal with the situation. All meetings have been open to the public. The LCCC adopted a resolution which was presented to and passed by the Historic Environment Preservation Board of the City of Miami in July. The LCCC prepared and presented a preliminary historic designation report for the September meeting of the HEP Board. That report was accepted unanimously by the Board in October.

MDC’s Miami Leadership Roundtable presents Valerie Plame Wilson and Joseph Wilson
Wednesday, Feb. 9, 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
The Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove
3300 S.W. 27th Avenue
(Please note this is a new venue.)

COST: The price for a single ticket is $35 and a table of eight is $275. Seating is limited.
Online registration is available at http://mdcalumni.com/netcommunity/Plame-Wilson.

Miami Dade College (MDC) will present its renowned Miami Leadership Roundtable with a couple that took on a former United States president’s administration and won. Now, MDC students and guests will be able to attend a conversation with Former CIA covert operations officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, and former Acting Ambassador to Iraq, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, on Wednesday,February 9, at 8 a.m. at The Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove. (Please note this is a new venue.)

Plame worked to protect America’s national security and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in her role as a covert CIA operations officer. Without warning, in 2003 she found herself at the heart of a political firestorm when senior White House and State Department officials revealed her secret status to several national journalists. A subsequent investigation exposed what some call an act of treason. Plame is the author of Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, MyBetrayal by the White House. She is now a public advocate and respected authority on issues of national security and counter-proliferation.

Ambassador Wilson’s historic career in international relations spans more than three decades with service under five U.S. presidents. He was hailed “a true American hero” by President George H.W. Bush for his efforts to free more than 100 American hostages in Iraq prior to the first Gulf War. Under direction from the Bush Administration in 2002, he traveled to Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein had obtained uranium yellowcake for Iraq’s nuclear program. He reported there was no truth to the claims, and his findings ignited a high-profile controversy. In 2004, Wilson chronicled his diplomatic career and battle with the Bush administration in his bestselling book, The Politics of Truth.

The Plame-Wilson ordeal stirred Hollywood filmmakers to create Fair Game, a major motion picture starring Sean Penn and Naomi Watts that is based on the CIA leak controversy.

Throughout the years, MDC’s renowned Miami Leadership Roundtable speaker series has included former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford; former vice-president Al Gore; former first-lady Barbara Bush; former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev; former Russian Prime Minister, the late Yegor Gaidar; former Polish President and Nobel Prize winner Lech Walesa; Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar; Dominican President Dr. Leonel Fernandez; former Colombian President Andres Pastrana; former first lady of Egypt Jehan Sadat; interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard La Tortue; and Turkish Education Minister Huseyin Celik. Additional notable guests who have also addressed the Roundtable include film director Oliver Stone; journalists Dan Rather, the late David Brinkley, Linda Elberbee and the late Ed Bradley; famed envoy for the Church of England and author Terry Waite, author Tom Wolfe; and many, many more.

The Frost Art Museum’s The Steven & Dorothea Green Critics’ Lecture Series presents An Evening with Christo
Friday, February 11, 2011, 7p.m.
Florida International University – Modesto A. Maidique Campus
College of Business Complex
Special Events Center, Room 235
11200 SW 8th St.
Miami, FL 33199

With his wife and creative partner, Jeanne-Claude, Christo has wrapped the Reichstag building in Berlin (1995) and the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris (1985) in fabric. Christo’s lecture entitled “Two Works In Progess: Over The River, Project For The Arkansas River, Colorado; The Mastaba, Project For The United Arab Emirates” will address these two upcoming projects. Christo will speak on Friday, February 11, 2010 at 7 p.m. at FIU’s College of Business as the featured lecturer for The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum’s Steven & Dorothea Green Critics’ Lecture Series. This event is free and open to the public.

Together Christo and Jeanne-Claude orchestrated a 25-mile fabric fence across Northern California (1976), strung an orange curtain across a Colorado valley (1972) and surrounded 11 islands with floating pink woven polypropylene fabric in Biscayne Bay (1983). Most recently, The Gates transformed 23 miles of Central Park walkways for 16 days in 2005 with 7503 vinyl gates with freeflowing saffron nylon fabric panels.

Christo’s lecture is the second of three Green Critics’ Lectures of the 2010-2011 season. On March 4, Richard Kurin, Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture for the Smithsonian, will discuss the history of the Hope Diamond from its discovery in India in the 17th century, to the French Revolution, the plotting of British King George IV, the gilded age in America and then into the 20th century where the myth of the diamond’s curse made it more famous than ever before. Dr. Kurin will also discuss his oversight of the Haiti Cultural Recovery Project, a Smithsonian Institution initiative, as well as experience serving on UNESCO’s International Coordinating Committee for Haiti.

Due to limited seating, please arrive early. The Museum will be open prior to the lecture. *Please note: new time and location. Those arriving late will not be seated.

About The Steven & Dorothea Green Critics’ Lecture Series
Since 1981, the Frost Art Museum has enhanced its exhibitions and educational programs with the Steven & Dorothea Green Critics’ Lecture Series, which has introduced numerous art world luminaries to the South Florida community. Internationally renowned artists, museum curators, scholars and critics have spoken on a variety of art topics to audiences of over 800. For more information, please visit http://thefrost.fiu.edu/critics.htm or call 305-348-2890.

About The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University
Over 60,000 visitors have come to The Frost Art Museum since its opening in November 2008. The Frost is an AAM accredited museum and Smithsonian affiliate. The Museum is located at 10975 SW 17th St. across from the Blue garage and adjacent to the Wertheim Performing Arts Center on the University Park campus. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10 p.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday noon – 5p.m. The Frost is closed on Mondays and most legal holidays. For more information, please visit http://thefrost.fiu.edu or call 305-348-2890.
Find The Frost Art Museum on Twitter (twitter.com/frostartmuseum) and Facebook (facebook.com).

About FIU
Florida International University is one of the 25 largest universities in the nation, with more than 42,000 students. Nearly 130,000 FIU alumni live and work in South Florida. Its colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. As one of South Florida’s anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. The opening of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in August 2009 has enhanced the university’s ability to create lasting positive change in our community. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu