Stages of Freedom

It’s the last day for Providence Public Library’s fall exhibit Stages of Freedom: Black Performing Arts in RI since the 1700s. Beginning with the story of Cuffy Cockroach, an eighteenth-century Newport slave, the exhibit features costumes and ephemera from several centuries’ worth of black theater and entertainment. Curated by Robb Dimmick and Ray Rickman, the exhibit highlights places like the Celebrity Club, an integrated jazz club which opened on Charles Street in 1949. Central Falls native Viola Davis is also represented, and the exhibit is dedicated to the late Barbara Meek, the Trinity Rep actress who passed away earlier this fall.

photo via the RI Rhythm & Blues Preservation Society