FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 13, 2007
Afro-American Cultural Center
www.aacc-charlotte.org
704.374.1565

Ella Fitzgerald Unveiled:
Black Heritage Commemorative Stamp Ceremony Opens AACC Gallery Talk with Essud Fungcap

Charlotte, NC — The Afro-American Cultural Center (AACC) will open two exhibitions, JazzArt: Artistically Alive and Jazzy Things Innumerable - The Art of Essud Fungcap, on Friday, February 16th at 5:00 pm with an unveiling of the 30th US Postal Service Black Heritage commemorative stamp, a portrait of Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song.”   Admission to the stamp unveiling and Gallery Talk is free.

“My mother would be extremely overwhelmed, honored and surprised to be portrayed on a stamp,” says Fitzgerald’s son, Ray Brown, Jr., “… a stamp is something that’s used every day, yet it gives people an opportunity to reflect on individuals they commemorate and to learn why … [the honoree is] so special.”

JazzArt, one of two AACC exhibits which will open on Friday, contains a life-sized image of Ella Fitzgerald along with many of her contemporaries, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis.  The exhibit is the work of six artists: Zoe Alowan, Lin Larsen, Wayne Hoyle, Edy Britts, Grace Kelly Rivera and E.J. Gold.  Created on monumental canvases, this unique exhibition weaves together a story of vocal and instrumental jazz. 

Painter Essud Fungcap, whose work is collected in Jazzy Things Innumerable — also opening on Friday — will join UNCC Professor Robert Smith and NC Central Professor Ira Wiggins to discuss Fungcap’s work and the impact of jazz on American culture.

Influenced by a lifetime in the Caribbean and a bi-cultural upbringing — his father is Chinese, his mother, Haitian — Fungcap paints to excite, to calm, and to stir emotion as he strives to convey a quiet, peaceful tropical style.  Because music is such an integral part of his life, Fungcap finds parallels in Latin, jazz and classical music compositions as he searches for the natural rhythm of his own work.  He is a composer of sorts, bringing together different mediums, ideas, and emotions to create harmony and to bring life to his paintings. 

“A life without art would bring despair,” Fungcap says, “but art without the life it seeks to represent would be unbearable.”

Using jazz as the catalyst to examine one of America's most respected contributions to the world of music, the Afro-American Cultural Center’s 2006 – 2007 exhibitions and programs have been constructed to offer an historical account of jazz music's origins, pioneers, and influences from America's pre-colonial period through today. This yearlong presentation of performances and exhibitions helps to broaden awareness of innovative jazz giants, their musical masterpieces, and the cultural and social impact that rippled throughout society.

In 1934, a young Ella Fitzgerald entered an amateur contest at Harlem’s Apollo Theater determined to show off her dancing skills. At the last minute, she decided, instead, to sing.  This seemingly insignificant decision helped to change the fabric of life in the United States. 

The Black Heritage stamp series began in 1978 by honoring Harriet Tubman, conductor of the Underground Railroad.  In subsequent years, the stamps have paid tribute to other African American leaders as well as African American inventors, educators, scientists, entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers.