About the Event

The Nasher Sculpture Center presents Art and the Urban Experience, a panel discussion highlighting the efforts of Alan Govenar and Documentary Arts to focus public attention on the enduring significance of Deep Ellum. The talk will feature Alan Govenar joined by Bob Ray Sanders and Norma Adams-Wade and will be held on November 15, 2023 at 5:30pm at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Upon the 150th anniversary of Deep Ellum, Documentary Arts and its founder Alan Govenar have organized five exhibitions in collaboration with the Deep Ellum Foundation and the African American Museum. These exhibitions interrogate the racially diverse history and immensely creative roots of Deep Ellum, thriving today as an art and nightlife district east of Downtown Dallas. The five exhibitions include: When You Go Down In Deep Ellum, and Unlikely Blues: Louis Paeth and Blind Lemon Jefferson, on view at the newly opened Deep Ellum Community Center; Invisible Deep Ellum, a public art installation under the I-345 overpass; and Seeing a World Blind Lemon Never Saw and Central Track: Crossroads of Deep Ellum, opening at the African American Museum in Fair Park as part of their November 13 Family Day.

During the panel discussion Govenar, Sanders, and Adams-Wade will provide context and commentary on Deep Ellum’s history and these five exhibitions, discussing the role art plays in urban growth, and the sometimes unintended consequences of that growth.

Immediately following the discussion, the Nasher will host a book signing for See That My Grave Is Kept Clean: The World and Music of Blind Lemon Jefferson by Alan Govenar and Kip Lornell and Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where Cultures Converged by Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield. All authors will be in attendance.

About Alan Govenar

Alan Govenar is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, photographer, and filmmaker. He is director of Documentary Arts, a non-profit organization he founded in 1985 to advance essential perspectives on historical issues and diverse cultures. Govenar is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of more than thirty-five books, including Boccaccio in the Berkshires, Paradise in the Smallest Thing, Stoney Knows How: Life as a Tattoo Artist, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Untold Glory, Texas Blues, Stompin’ at the Savoy, Everyday Music, Texas in Paris, Osceola: Memories of a Sharecropper’s Daughter, A Pillow on the Ocean of Time, See That My Grave Is Kept Clean: The World and Music of Blind Lemon Jefferson (coauthored with Kip Lornell), and Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where Cultures Converged (coauthored with Jay Brakefield). Govenar’s film Stoney Knows How was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and was an Outstanding Film of the Year at the London Film Festival. Govenar has also produced and directed numerous films in association with NOVA, PBS and ARTE. His feature-length documentaries Looking for Home, Myth of a Colorblind France, Extraordinary Ordinary People, Tattoo Uprising, The Beat Hotel, Master Qi and the Monkey King, and You Don’t Need Feet to Dance are distributed by First Run Features.

About Bob Ray Sanders 

Bob Ray Sanders' journalism career spanned more than four decades and three media: newspaper, television and radio. In 2015 he retired as Associate Editor and Senior Columnist from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he previously worked as a courthouse reporter and political writer before leaving to begin a distinguished career in broadcasting. In the 1970s he joined KERA-TV where he eventually served as vice present/station manager and was a host and producer of the station’s award winning program, News Addition. Sanders is a past president of the Press Club of Fort Worth, a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists.

Sanders has received some of journalism's most prestigious awards, among them: five awards from the Houston, New York and Chicago film festivals, five Dallas Press Club KATIE Awards, three Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards; a regional Emmy Award; a National Association of Black Journalists award for Best TV Sports Feature, and a National Headliner Award for outstanding investigative reporting. Other honors include: "Ethics Award" from the TCU Journalism Department; Distinguished Alumni Award, Fort Worth Independent School District; induction into the "Hall of Honor," University of North Texas Journalism Department; induction in the Texas Literary Hall of Fame; an honorary doctorate degree from Jarvis Christian College and the "Thomas Jefferson Liberty Award" from the Dallas Civil Liberties Union. In 2017 he was inducted in the Hall of Fame of the National Black Journalists Association.

About Norma Adams-Wade  

Norma Adams-Wade was the first African American to cover Dallas, Texas news citywide when The Dallas Morning News hired her in 1974. She followed her mentor Julia Scott Reed, a trailblazing Black columnist hired in 1967 to exclusively cover Dallas African American news. Adams-Wade covered general assignments, federal courts, consumer affairs, and helped create and staff TDMN’s Metro South Bureau. In January 1988, she added writing a column to her reporting duties. She retired in December 2002 but continued to write her TDMN column about local Black people and issues from 2002 to February 2023. The Dallas native is now a columnist with Texas Metro News in Dallas. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists. Her awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from NABJ’s Dallas/Fort Worth-area affiliate, an NABJ national Hall of Fame Award, and The News’ own Joe Dealey Publisher’s Award for outstanding reporting.

About Documentary Arts:

Documentary Arts was founded by Alan Govenar in 1985 as a non-profit organization to broaden public knowledge of the arts of different cultures in all media.

Left photo: Deep Ellum Community Center - Permanent and Temporary Exhibitions - Curated by Alan Govenar
Right photo: “Invisible Deep Ellum” Public Art installation by Alan Govenar under the I-345 overpass