SARASOTA – The first African American cultural center in Sarasota is making its way to Newtown.
“We’re just creating a space where everyone can come and have the tough conversations,” said Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition Board Member, La’Tiara Love.
The City of Sarasota, Newtown Alive, and the Sarasota African American Coalition have reached an agreement to move the historic Leonard Reid house, now at 7th and Cohen Way, to the Martin Luther King Jr. corridor in Newtown.
“Leonard Reid was an educator he helped shape the first African American community in Sarasota,” said Love.
“His wife helped build an AME church, his daughters were educators, and they educated many of the Newtown residents so were exciting about having this home be the first African American Museum in Sarasota,” said Love.
Love says the African American Cultural Center is going to help bridge the gap by focusing on diversity and inclusion
“Some of the programing’s include coaching and mentoring for high school students, we also have a project that I’m working on right now that I’m really excited about which is spotlighting local artists, interviewing artists, and showcasing their work, we’re also partnering with local businesses and entrepreneurs, and the goal is to position the museum as a community resource, so we want to collab with everyone and build up the community,” said Love.
The 1,400 square foot house, built-in 1926 is hoped to be moved before the summer.
“They’re going to actually pick it up and move it there, we want to make it a whole celebration and it just seems like the perfect fit, Newtown is a historic African American community, this is a historic house so it was a perfect marriage,” said Love.
For more information on the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, you can visit their website.