MUSICAL ESCORT: Fans helped the 7th annual North Miami music festival usher out Black History Month in style over the weekend with R&B greats such as Mikki Howard, second row right, Atlantic Starr, En Vogue and Stephanie Mills, bottom. Mayor Alix Desulme presented a parting trophy to each of the performers, Chubb Rock was host and DJ Tight the deejay for the evening. The event was founded in 2016 during his first term as North Miami’s honorary Black History Month co-chairman by Councilman Alix Desulme, who envisioned an outdoor experience called Music in the Plaza. Over the years the event outgrew its original MOCA Plaza venue as it transformed into the full-fledged NoMi Fest.

KEVIN HICKS PHOTOS FOR SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES

IMPROVISATIONAL MASTERY: The 26th Annual Melton Mustafa Jazz Festival jump-started Women’s History Month over the weekend with “International Ladies of Jazz” at the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater in Miami, featuring some of jazz music’s most acclaimed female performers including, above from left, Yarelis Gandul, Shirazette Tinnin, Quiana Lynell, Tajae Veal and Mariel Bildsten, as well as the Melton Mustafa Orchestra, Jesse Jones Jr., and local middle, high school and college bands. “This festival was very important to my father and my mother,” Melton Mustafa, Jr., above right, said of his late parents Melton Sr., the festival’s founder and director, and Zakiyyah Mustafa, regarding perpetuation of their legacy. “Not only does it bring phenomenal jazz music to the historically Black neighborhood of Overtown every year, but the workshops and master classes offered to the students are valuable and top-tier experiences for any young musician to have access to.”

C.B. HANIF PHOTOS / SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES