Community Calendar April 10 – 25, 2009

Friday, April 10
Steve Harvey: There are no comedy performances, radio show antics or celebrity all-star parties. Steve Harvey was inspired to come to South Florida this evening because of a book store. Barnes & Noble, 18711 N.E. Biscayne Blvd. in Aventura, to be exact, is hosting a book signing of Steve Harvey’s dating advice novel, Think Like a Man, Act Like a Lady. The show, I mean the book signing, starts at 6 p.m. For more information, please call 305-935-9770.

Saturday, April 11
West African Collections: The Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real in Boca Raton, is showcasing its West African Collections, featuring art works from Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cameroon, Nigeria and Zaire. For more information, please call 561-392-2500.

Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance: Imagine if someone combined the physical genius of Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Actually don't bother with the make believe, come and see Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance Company for yourself. By combining martial arts, ballet, Broadway, tango and Hip- Hop, the company creates an exciting new dance show. Catch them tonight at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, 701 Okeechobee Blvd. in West Palm Beach. There will be performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $38. For more information, please call 561-832-7469.

Tuesday, April 14
Leonard Pitts Jr.: The popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist is holding a book reading at Books and Books, 265 Aragon Avenue in Coral Gables, of his recently released fictional debut, Before I Forget. The father and sons story is a mixture of a road novel, character study and social critique of the truths about many black men’s lives. The reading is free and open to the public and begins at 8 p.m. For more information, please call 305-442-4408.

Thursday, April 16
Perpetual Motion: Florida International University’s Dance Department presents Perpetual Motion, a dance extravaganza showcasing a variety of styles including ballet, samba, Afro-Cuban and modern dance. The show will take place at the main stage of the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center, 10910 SW 17Th Street in Miami. From April 16 to April 18, a show will start every night at 8:30 p.m., but the final show on Sunday, April 19, show will be at 2 p.m. General admission is $12. For more information, please call 305-348-0496.

Friday, April 22
Post Black Art: In an age where a biracial man says he is black, where the African Diaspora can refer to African Americans, Caribbean Americans, African South Americans, etc., more people are trying to come to terms with what it means to be black. With the question of blackness up in the air, the question of what it means to create black art also hangs in the balance. To help find an answer, come and listen to the Miami Art Museum’s (101 W. Flagler St. in Miami) Lecture Series as Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, the founding member of Kuumba Artists Collective of South Florida, speaks on Post Black Art. The lecture starts at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tickets are $10 for members and $15 for non-members. For more information, please call 305-375-3000.

Saturday, April 25
Black History Cemetery Tour: Think the best has happened in the past? That nothing contemporary compares to the past? Then the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, 101 W. Flagler St. in Miami, has the tour for you. Travel with Dr. Paul George to visit the final resting places of early settlers and the segregated black section of the cemetery. The tour visits the grave sites of Bernard Mackey of the Inkspots Quartet; Judge Lawson Thomas, first black judge in the South; and Richard Toomey, Miami’s first black lawyer, among others. Tickets for members are $20 and $25 for non-members. For more information, please call 305-375-1492.